Examination of the Perceptions on the View of Preschool Teachers About School Counselor

The responsibility of the development and the achievement of the child seems to be put on the shoulders of the preschool teacher. However, education is a teamwork in which not only teacher but also school administrator, family, school counselor (psychological counselor) and other supporting units should take active duty and work in cooperation. The school counselor plays an important role in following and supporting the child's bio-psycho-social development in this process. For all that, it is noteworthy that there is no effective cooperation between preschool teacher and school counselor. This study aims to investigate the perceptions of preschool teachers about school counselors. The data on school counselors’ perceptions was collected by metaphor analysis method. Content analysis was used to classify the data. The study group of the research consisted of 221 preschool teachers working in European side of Istanbul during the academic year of 2016-2017. As a means of collecting data, teachers were asked to complete the sentence "School counselor is like .............. because ..........". Also the "personal information form" was used to obtain demographic information. Conceptual categories were created by analyzing the reasons why teachers prefered and used their spesific expressions to complete the survey. It was determined that the school counselor perceived positive expressions such as advisor, helper, guiding, problem solver, supporting.


Introduction
The word metaphor originates from the Greek word metapherein ("to transfer"), where meta means "among" and pherein means "to bear, to carry". Therefore, in English language the word "metaphor" can signify "a transfer of meaning from one thing to another" (Gibbs, 1994: 210; as cited in Nikitina and Furuoka, 2008: 163). Metaphors have been identified by using Lakoff and Johnson's (1980: 3) inclusive definition that is 'the understanding of one thing in terms of another'. A metaphor as a term is used as transferring the equivalent of something or just transferring. In most dictionaries, metaphor is described as comparing two things (Dur, 2006).
Metaphors are figures of speech in which one image or concept takes the place of (using to describe) another image or concept. They are so much a part of everyday communication that we hardly recognise them as figurative or metaphorical concepts (Pryor and Bright, 2009: 40). Metaphors help us to notice the inside of something and they also lead us to misinterpret the things. Metaphors have both strong and weak points. They do not only lead us to realize something but also lead us not to realize. As a result, there cannot be one metaphor suitable for every situation. Different metaphors have a power to uncover different dimensions of a situation and to show how different qualities can exist together (Morgan, 1998).
Metaphors can be seen as accepted communication tools (Hogler, Gross, Hartman, & Cunliffe, 2008;Steger, 2007). They connect the experience and imagination together. They lead our comments and perceptions on reality and help us to state our imagination and aims clearly (Cornelissen, Oswick, Christenses, & Phillips, 2008;Lopez, 2007). Metaphors may express and describe the concepts not only in a clear way but also in a detailed way (Sten, 2002). The meaning of the metaphor in conceptual field is having a relation between the field of concepts, field of knowledge, and the words (Heywood, Elena, & Mick, 2002). At the same time, metaphors contribute to reveal how concepts are perceived (Cerit, 2008;Rızvanoğlu, 2007). Metaphors may be concrete or abstract as well as positive or negative. As a tool of getting information and examination, they can help the complex subjects to be understood easily (Semerci, 2007).
The school counselor serving at educational institutions offers counselling aid for a student to know and accept his/her personality which is constantly developing, to make decisions and choices concerning the upper stages, to deal with the problems faced with, to make the best use of his/her potential and thus reach self-actualization (Yeşilyaprak, 2001). The school counselors generally fulfill their primal aid activities, namely individual and group counseling, guidance, consultation, coordination, case management, guidance curriculum, program planning, management and evaluation (American School Counselor Association-ASCA, 2007;Fitch & Marshall, 2004;Kuhn, 2004;Morrissette, 2000).
As the needs and developmental features of preschool education, elementary education, secondary education and university students differ from each other, the counseling and guidance services offered vary accordingly. Preschool stage is a critical stage during which the development is fast, the personality structure begins to take shape, the child is affected by his surroundings and is open to any kind of learning (Uz-Baş, 2007). In Turkey the aim of preschool education is to enhance the physical, cognitive and emotional development of children, support the acquisition of good habits, prepare children for primary education, ensure equity between all children and support the proper and correct use of the Turkish language (Ministry of National Education, 2006). In Turkey, early childhood education includes children aging from 3 to 5.5 years (36-66 months). It is provided in public or private kindergartens, application classrooms or nursery classes under the supervision of Turkish Ministry of National Education for a whole or half-day program (Ministry of National Education, 2012). Teachers working in these institutions graduate from preschool teacher departments of universities. The four-year education process includes theoretical and practical courses related to child development, program and curriculum development and some teaching skills.
One of the difficulties observed is that in preschool education responsibility of the development and achievement of the child is left to the preschool teacher. However, education is a teamwork in which not only teacher but also school administrator, family, school counselor (psychological counselor) and other supporting units should take active duty and work in cooperation. The school counselor plays an important role in following and supporting the child's bio-psycho-social development in this process. Psychological counseling and guidance services are carried out under the leadership of school counselor. However, this does not mean that the psychological counseling and guidance service is a task that should only be carried out by the school counselor. There seems to be lack of cooperation between pre-school teacher and the school counselor. This study aims to investigate the perceptions of preschool teachers about school counselor by means of metaphoric analysis.

Purpose
The main purpose of this study is to investigate the perceptions of preschool teachers about school counselor through metaphor analysis. In accordance with this main purpose, the following questions are asked to get answers: 1. What are the metaphors preschool teachers have developed regarding school counselor concept?
2. Under which categories can these metaphors expressed by preschool teachers be gathered in terms of common properties?
3. What role does the metaphors expressed by preschool teachers have in the foreground of the guidance teacher?

Research Model
Researches trying to identify some events, objects, entities, associations, groups and various fields are defined as descriptive studies. These studies aim at explaining the interaction between the situations by taking into consideration of existing events and the previous events and their relations. Therefore, the current situations, conditions and characteristics are tried to be shown just as they are (Kaptan, 1998). This research is a descriptive study to reveal and analyze the current status. In this study, in order to determine the metaphors, a semi-structured form was given to preschool teachers to learn their perceptions about school counselors. For this purpose, preschool teachers were asked to complete a sentence in the following: "School counselor is like..... because.....". The basic qualitative research model was adopted to collect, analyze and interpret data and technically metaphor analysis was used. Metaphor analysis allows the formation of qualitative data based on systematic stages such as listing, coding, categorizing, labeling of metaphors and calculation of compliance percentages (Schmitt, 2005). In this qualitative research, content analysis was performed during metaphor analysis.

Study Group
The study group of this research consists of 221 preschool teachers, 214 of whom are women and 7 of whom are men, working in the European side of Istanbul during the 2016-2017 academic year. A convenience sampling method was used to select participants of the study in order to describe their experience and perspectives. The demographic characteristics of the participants are given in Table 1.

Data Collection
The data of this study were collected from preschool teachers working in various schools in Istanbul. After taking permission from the school administrations, teachers were contacted and face-to-face information was provided about the research. A secure atmosphere was tried to be provided for teachers to feel comfortable while responding the questions. Teachers were asked to complete the sentence "School counselor is like .............. because ..........". They were given approximately 10 minutes to produce metaphors and they were asked to write the first metaphor that came into their minds. When metaphors are used as a research tool, the notion of "like" is often used to evoke the link between the subject of metaphors and the source of metaphors more clearly. It is also desired that preschool teachers should find a logical basis for their own metaphors with the concept of "because" (Saban, 2008). Moreover, teachers were given demographic information form in order to obtain data about their gender, age, educational degree, duration of service, marital status etc.

Data Analysis
During the data analysis, two expert researchers were informed on the issue and they were trained on how to follow the procedures. Among qualitative data analysis techniques, metaphor analysis was utilized for the examination of the data collected in the study. Analysis and interpretation of the metaphors were performed in four steps: 1) Codification and elimination, 2) Category improvement, 3) Providing validity and reliability, 4) Analyzing data quantitatively.
In codification and elimination step, all the metaphorical images supplied by the participants were coded. Forms that did not provide a rationale and a clear articulation of metaphorical images were eliminated. During the categorization step, generative categories were tried to be defined out of 100 surface metaphors. In order to assure validity and reliability of the study inter-coder reliability and Miles and Huberman's (1994) inter coder reliability formula was used (reliability = agreements / agreements + disagreements). To ensure the reliability of the study, the forms were examined by the researcher and two expert researchers. Data obtained by the two researchers were compared with the participation of the third researcher and "coherence" and "consistency" of the data were analyzed. Cohesiveness of two researchers' themes was analyzed by taking into account the principle arguing that qualitative data increases reliability (Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2013). As a result of reliability calculation, the item agreement percentage of the scale was determined as 0.93 and it was accepted as reliable. In the last step, all the study data were entered into the SPSS program to calculate the frequencies (f) and percentages (%) of the metaphorical images in each conceptual category.

Findings
In this section, the metaphors developed by the teachers participating in the research about the "school counselor" case are presented in tables. The findings are analyzed and interpreted as sub-titles according to the purpose questions.

Under which categories can these metaphors expressed by preschool teachers be gathered in terms of common properties?
When the participants' statements are analyzed, in total four conceptual categories are created from the metaphors they have produced: Problem Solver and Helper, Guide, Supporter and Ineffective Counselor.

Category 1: School counselor as a Problem Solver and Helper
In this category, it is seen that the preschool teachers perceive the school counselor as a Problem Solver and Helper and that they produce various metaphors on this subject. The frequency (f) and percent (%) values of the metaphors expressed by the teachers are presented in Table 2. When the Table 2 is examined, it is seen that the category of "problem solver and helper" is represented by 31 metaphors and 94 teachers (43%). The most important of these categories are Support Force (13 teachers), Problem Solver (10 teachers), Consultant (9 teachers), Savior (7 teachers) and Helper in difficult situation (5 teachers).
Examples of direct expression of preschool teachers in this category are given below.
"Who are interested in the special situations of the students, their problems and who show the solutions." (Teacher 5) "The person with whom I get help and support about the differences in the developmental processes and compliance issues of the students in my class." (Teacher 8) "School counselor best knows the problem solving techniques and is the first unit to work with the prechool teacher in coordination." (Teacher 14) "Person with broad framework for finding solutions." (Teacher 44) "School counselor helps teachers and parents with the problems encountered, guides students when it is necessary and solves the problem in cooperation with prescool teachers as well." (Teacher 21)

Category 2: School counselor as a Guide
In this category, it is seen that the preschool teachers perceive the school counselor as a Guide and that they produce various metaphors on this subject. The frequency (f) and percent (%) values of the metaphors expressed by the teachers are presented in Table 3.
When the Table 3 is examined, it is seen that the category of "guide" is represented by 26 metaphors and 64 teachers (29%). The most important of these categories are Guide (17 teachers), Compass (9 teachers), Light (5 teachers) and Lighthouse (4 teachers).
Examples of direct expression of preschool teachers in this category are given below.
"The children or their families should consult on matters that are not sufficient, it is best to get help from experts in this regard." (Teacher 12) "Directs the students to the appropriate destination." (Teacher 2) "The teacher can be challenged when there are special children in the class (difficult children) and should be guided and supported about how to approach the child and what to do." (Teacher 26) "Guides parents when they don't know how to direct their own children and also teachers and students when it is necessary. (Teacher 54)

Category 3: School counselor as a Supporter
In this category, it is seen that the preschool teachers perceive the school counselors as a Supporter and that they produce various metaphors on this subject. The frequency (f) and percent (%) values of the metaphors expressed by the teachers are presented in Table 4.
When the Table 4 is examined, it is seen that the category of "supporter" is represented by 36 metaphors and 56 teachers (25%). The most important of these categories are Foundation of school (5 teachers), Friend (5 teachers), Bridge (4 teachers) and Mather and Father (4 teachers).
Examples of direct expression of preschool teachers in this category are given below.
"Special cases that you can share." (Teacher 34) "Guidance is like first aid, no matter which area and service you are in, you may need guidance from the individual." (Teacher 29) "It can be helpful and supportive in difficult children and difficult parents." (Teacher 25) "Every child needs an advisor, the school counselor should be preventative to avoid the problem." (Teacher 9) "We have to face a lot of different events and people in our profession, but even if you know some things you need someone to show you different perspectives, a unit that will understand and support you when you get stuck is very important." (Teacher 32)

Category 4: School counselor as Ineffective
In this category, it is seen that the preschool teachers perceive the school counselors as Ineffective and that they produce various metaphors on this subject. The frequency (f) and percent (%) values of the metaphors expressed by the teachers are presented in Table 5. When the Table 5 is examined, it is seen that the category of "ineffective" is represented by 7 metaphors and 7 teachers (3%). Examples of direct expression of preschool teachers in this category are given below.
"Must be friendly and positive, should not be hasty in the tests you have done." (Teacher 47) "I work in the kindergarten section of a middle school with a high number of students, we have only one school counselor and even though we need her in the kindergarten, she cannot deal with pre-school students." (Teacher 33) "Never come to class to recognize students, do not observe, do not care about students to direct to RAM (Guidance Research Center)" (Teacher 63) "She is very unrelated to us and children, there is no solution when we have problems" (Teacher 62) "As far as I can observe, the school counselor is sitting in the teachers' room until the end time of the day" (Teacher 80) "Her room was always there, but the door was always locked, was she there or was not, we never knew" (Teacher 207) Table 6 shows the distribution of metaphors categorized by teachers participating in the survey on the concept of "school counselor". When the Table 6 is examined, it is seen that 43% of the pre-school teachers participating in the research perceive the school counselor as "problem solver and helper", 29% as "guide", 25% as "supporter" and 3% as "ineffective". According to these data, preschool teachers perceive the school counselor as a person who solves the problems of the students and helps them.

Conclusion, Discussion and Suggestions
Education is generally seen as a special process between the student and the teacher, but in reality it is a teamwork. In this team, beside the class teacher, teachers of different branches, school administrators, school counselor (psychological counselor), family and other supporting units should have active duty and work in cooperation.
Preschool education is a special field of knowledge and skills. According to the impressions we have gained from previous field visits, it is observed that in preschool education responsibility for the development and achievement of the child is left to the preschool teacher and school administration. The school counseling has an important role in following and supporting the child's bio-psycho-social development in this process. For all that, it is noteworthy that there is no effective cooperation between preschool teacher and school counselor. In this study, the perceptions of preschool teachers of school counselor were examined by means of metaphor analysis. This study aimed to show the ways in which synergy could be created between the preschool teacher and the school counselor. Metaphors used by the preschool teachers show the degree of importance given to the profession of school counselor in preschools. However constraints experienced at the schools seems to rely all the responsibility on the shoulders of the preschool teachers.
When we look at the results of this research four categories; problem solver and helper, supporter, guide and ineffective metaphors were produced by preschool teachers. According to this, the school counselors were most perceived as Problem solver and helper, followed by Guide, Supporter and Ineffective respectively.
The first category that comes to foreground in this research is a preschool teachers' perception of school counselors as Problem Solver and Helper. The acquisition of problem solving skills by individuals is one of the main objectives of guidance. Looking at the mentality of guidance, it seems that there is also an approach that focuses on the incomplete aspects and malpractice of the individual and follows a path towards their solution (Şahin, 2010). Ginter, Scalise, and Presse (1990) have noted that teachers primarily look forward to the role of school counselors as helpers, facilitators and advisers. Wilgus and Shelley (1988) reported that school counselors gave priority to individual and group counseling in the study that examines the role of school counselors according to the perception of teachers.
The main function of psychological counseling and guidance services is to help students to complete the developmental tasks required for their developmental stage (Myrick, 2003). School counselors at school seem to be mainly concerned with problem children. Guidance is a process of helping an individual, but this includes not only problematic individuals but all individuals. This is especially important for infants, toddlers and preschoolers at preschools. In this period of time the child gives the hints of his or her developmental process. In case where there may be a problem, this could be diagnosed in the earlier developmental phases. At this point, the role of the preschool teacher is crucially important in ways of observing the child and understanding the child in terms of developmental competencies. It would be unfair to expect the preschool teacher to perform his or her responsibilities as a school counselor. Findings of this study reveals the importance of school counselors in preschools in ways of supporting children, families and teachers.
The second category found in this research is a preschool teachers' perception of school counselors as a Guide. Here, the school counselor is expected to guide not only the students but also the teachers and the parents. In other words, it is expected to be a leader. School counselors have an important leadership role in the development and implementation of school-based prevention programs in providing and maintaining a safe school atmosphere. This leadership role is perceived as coordinating and guiding all the stakeholders of the school.
The third category obtained in the research is a preschool teachers' perception of school counselors as a "Supporter". Looking at the metaphors produced by the preschool teachers, it seems that the school counselor is the essential unit of the school. At the same time, they are perceived as reliable and confidential school personnel. The school counselor is perceived as the first person to contact and the closest person in any question.
The fourth category obtained in the research is a preschool teachers perception of school counselors as "Ineffective". All the teachers who participated in the research except seven teachers (3%) expressed their positive opinions about the school counselor. These seven teachers used negative metaphors and explanations about school counselors. When analysed the rationale behind these teachers' negative attitudes, it was observed that many of them did not have the opportunity to work with a school counselor before due to the small number of teachers and the personelle allocated for their schools. In cases where there be school counselors, some of them were perceived as in effective due to the high number of students given for one school counselor at a big school. This finding seems to align with the experiences of the author in various academic site visits. In these informal visits, schools counselors were also given additional administrative responsibilities with the belief that they may have more available time when compared to preschool teachers. It could be interpreted from these results that the presence of a large number of students in some schools and the lack of staff influence the quality of guidance services. Classroom teachers are the key to conduct guidance services, but sufficient specialist staff should be assigned to primary schools by taking into account the student numbers. Furher studies could investigate the experiences of school counselors working in these large schools in comparison with the small preschools. This study revealed the metaphors used by preschools working in public schools. Experiences of the preschool teachers and the schools counselors could be examined in follow up studies in a way to provide a "counselling and guidance model for preschools".
Since the formation of psychological counselors in Turkey is more likely to work in secondary education, guidance services are not widely available in preschool education (Doğan, 2001;Yüksel-Şahin, 2008). It is suggested that the school counselor who will serve preschool classes should be supported with in-service training and workshop studies about the characteristics of preschool period. As a result, preschool teachers need help only in problems they can't solve.
It can be said that the reason for this is due to the inadequate psychological knowledge and skills. They want the school counselor guide and help the students, parents and teachers. Almost all teachers stated that they accepted the school counselor as one of the basic element of education. School counselors are lack of education to deal with the 0-6 age group children. Play therapy, behavioral therapy techniques, projectives tests and techniques are used to solve the problems of these age group children. They aren't adequately taught in the university, they are given just introduction level education. School counselors are inadequate in solving the problems of the 0-6 age group students. That is why the cooperation beetween these two expert groups diminishes.
In cooperation with preschool teachers, a common understanding of guidance can be developed. More functional guidance services can be devoloped. More functional guidance program can be prepared by learning the expectations of the preschool teachers. More comprehensive guidance application can be created by taking into consideration the expectations of the teachers, administrators and parents into. Finally, the school counselor perception can be explored more comprehensively by taking the opinions of the other individuals related to guidance services.
In university, school counselors may be taught lessons about 0-6 age case analysis, preschool observation and child drawing. There is no spesific lesson in the curriculum of Higher Education Institution. Preschool Teacher Education curriculum includes courses named Classroom Management, Guidance and Child Mental Health. In these courses, students can be taught the methods of solving the behavioural problems of children.
Preschool teachers, school counselors and school administrators are expected to work in harmony in ways of implementing their "action research projects" in their school settings from an interdisciplinary perspective. In this respect, graduate education programs should also be tailored in line with the needs of teachers, students and families. Best practices implemented in the successful schools could be disseminated in ways of creating "communities of practice" (Hacıfazlıoğlu et al, 2017). Therefore both preschool teachers and the school counselors are expected to be supported both in pre service and in service periods. They need to be constantly trained in recent trends and developments in early childhood education as well as creating better channels of communication with children and families.