Abstract

In this study, a learning area in social studies curriculum called “Groups, institutions and social organizations” was used. It can be seen that an important role for teachers in a social studies programme is to benefit from non-governmental organizations. The aim of this study is to investigate primary school teacher candidates’ social metaphors to describe the concept of non-governmental organizations.  In the study, phenomonology method is used which is widely employed in a qualitative research approach.  The participants of the study are 300 teacher candidates attending Afyon Kocatepe University, Faculty of Education. The Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) Metaphor Form is used to collect data. The findings obtained show that the participants developed 47 NGO-related metaphors. The most commonly reported category is society (38.31%) followed by the category of others (34.48%) and values (26.81%).

Key words: Non-governmental organizations, education, teacher candidates, metaphors.