Analyzing Students' Visual Representations of Mathematics Teachers in a Rural Philippine School
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.48017/dj.v11i4.3680Keywords:
Metaphorical Analysis, Student Perceptions,, Mathematics Teacher, Visual Metaphors, Rural SchoolAbstract
This qualitative-descriptive study aimed to analyze and understand the visual metaphors Grade 10 students at St. Mary's Dominican School, a rural Philippine school, use to perceive their mathematics teacher. The objective was to uncover the positive and negative images students hold and how these reflect their classroom experiences. The methodological procedure was anchored in Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Social Constructivist Theory, and Symbolic Interactionism. Data was collected using a drawing and essay questionnaire where 20 students visually represented their teacher; 8 entries were purposively selected for thematic analysis. The development/results revealed three dominant themes: (1) The Teacher as a Source of Guidance and Access, with metaphors like "Compass" and "Lock and Key"; (2) The Teacher as a Dual-Faced Figure: Strict but Benevolent, with metaphors like "Teaching Machine," "Clock," and "Wolf"; and (3) Perceptions of Difficulty and Instability, seen in metaphors like "Alcohol" and "Battery". The final considerations/conclusions are that the dominance of the "strict but benevolent" theme indicates that students actively interpret their teacher's strict behavior, reframing it as a necessary and positive sign of care, a finding with significant implications for teacher-student relationships in rural educational settings.
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