Academicians and Teacher Candidates' Metaphorical Approaches to Creativity

The aim of this study is to reveal the perceptions of creativity of academicians working in different departments of an faculty of education and teacher candidates studying in different departments through an exploration of metaphors. A phenomenological design, as one of the qualitative research designs, was used in this study. The study group consisted of academicians working in the faculty of education of a state university and teacher candidates studying at the same university. Data were collected with a semi-structured interview form prepared by the researcher and analyzed by content analysis. As a result, it was observed that the metaphors developed by the teacher candidates and the academicians varied. It was concluded that teacher candidates mostly identified the concept of creativity with nature and based their metaphors on concepts that generated positive emotions and thoughts. On the other hand, academicians produced metaphors according to their fields of study.