An Investigation of Middle School 8th Grade Students' Metaphoric Perceptions Regarding Historical Empathy

Abstract

The main focus of research and studies in the field of historical empathy is to understand and analyze historical events in line with the contextual conditions of the era, without adapting them to today's logic. When the subject is viewed from this point of view, it comes to the fore how students who have historical empathy perceive / liken the concept of historical empathy. In this context, the aim of the study is to determine the perceptions of middle school 8th grade students regarding the concept of historical empathy through metaphors. For this purpose, descriptive model was used in the research. The participants of the study consisted of 50 students at the 8th grade of middle school. The research data were collected through the metaphor form. Content analysis was made on the data. When the mentioned metaphors were examined, it was seen that the students expressed the concept of historical empathy with different metaphors and explanations of these metaphors. Among the 19 metaphors, it was determined that the metaphors most expressed by students regarding the concept of historical empathy were listed as “Hot Pepper, Tornado, History and Video”. When these metaphors are evaluated together; it has been concluded that through historical empathy, students can be intensely drawn to historical events.