Social Actors and Preservation Mechanisms of Manuscript Heritage: A Sociological Approach to the Digitization Experience at the Ain Salah Repository

Abstract

The aim of this research is to reveal the affective characteristics of middle school students towards mathematics through metaphors. The research was conducted using a phenomenological design, a qualitative research method. Criterion sampling, a type of purposeful sampling, was used to determine the study group. The study group consists of 143 volunteer students attending a public middle school in the Onikişubat district of Kahramanmaraş province during the 2025-2026 academic year. Data were collected by having students complete the sentence: “If mathematics were a color/season/weather/game or toy/food/animal/music genre/sport/cartoon character, it would be……… Because ……….” The data obtained in the research were analyzed using content analysis. As a result of the research, it was observed that students produced 264 metaphors in nine different categories. It was determined that students mostly produced negative metaphors. Based on students’ explanations, the metaphors were categorized into three themes (value, perception, and emotion) within the context of affective characteristics. The analyses revealed that the metaphors produced by the students were mostly concentrated on perception themes, followed by emotion and value themes, respectively. Furthermore, when the codes derived from the students’ explanations of the metaphors were examined, it was observed that negative affective characteristics (difficulty, complexity, dislike, fear) were prominent, especially in the perception and emotion themes. Considering that students’ affective characteristics towards mathematics are generally negative, it can be suggested that these characteristics should be taken into account when teaching mathematics in the classroom.