İslami İlimler Fakültesi Öğrencilerinin Aile Algılarının Metaforik İncelenmesi: Ahi Evran Üniversitesi Örneği
A Metaphorical Analysis of Family Perceptions of Islamic Sciences Faculty Students: The Case of Ahi Evran University

Summary/Abstract: The family is a fundamental environment for an individual’s birth, growth, and the provision of necessary conditions for their education, and it is highly significant in the development of personality. Family, which ranks first among the hereditary and environmental factors in an individual’s development, is an institution that has been considered sacred and valued in all religions, cultures, and primitive societies throughout history. The family is influential not only in the physical and social development of the child but also in their psychological and cognitive development. The family, which plays a crucial role in individual development, is however being further damaged by rising divorce rates, the negative impact of social media, the negative portrayal of Turkish family values in Turkish cinema and television series, and even the normalization of certain structures that fundamentally destabilize the family as mere individual choices. In today’s rapidly changing and consuming world, this study aims to learn the perceptions of young people about the family through metaphors. This research aimed to reveal the perceptions of university students about the family through metaphors. The research was designed in the phenomenology pattern, which is one of the qualitative research methods, and the study group consisted of 128 volunteer students from the Faculty of Islamic Sciences who were studying in the 2023-2024 academic year, using the criterion sampling method. Data were collected through Google survey forms. Students were asked to create a metaphor about family with an open ended question, “Family is like…. Because…” to fill in the blanks. Metaphors were evaluated by consulting three field experts, and 13 participants were excluded from the study because they did not produce metaphors in the survey form. The remaining 115 metaphors were grouped in terms of similar features and the Miles and Huberman formula was used in the re-evaluations to ensure consensus on the metaphors that were categorized differently. At the end of the research, the students produced the most metaphors as “tree” (22), “castle” (7), “plane tree” (5), and the produced metaphors were evaluated in the categories of “family as protector” (34), “family as unity and togetherness” (15), “family as a guide” (8) according to their justifications. The metaphorical perceptions of participants about the family were mostly positive and reflected traditional family perceptions. The consequence of this study is consistent with other studies in the literature. Although the consequance of the study was positive, it was emphasized that all institutions and organizations should give importance to studies related to the family and fulfill their responsibilities to prevent the perception of the family from being devalued in our rapidly changing world. Since the participants of this study will be employed in the field as teachers or religious officials in the future and will start a family themselves, it becomes even more important for them to receive family-related training. Therefore, including family related courses to the curriculum can be suggested.

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