Abstract:

This study presents the perceptions of tourism vocational high school students through the training experiences in hotels via metaphor analysis. In the study, phenemenological research design was employed. A phenomenological study is a descriptive study which the participants of the study define their own experiences with their own conceptualization. The descriptions aim to ascertain unique experiences of the participants of a study (Creswell, 2014). This methodology paves a way to comprehend how a certain event or/and interactions generate meanings ( Bogdan& Biklen, 2007, p. 25-26). In phenomenological studies, the researchers tend to focus on common views group or within a group rather than individuals (Lu & Chen, 2011, p. 276). In order to fulfill given conditions, phenomenological approach requires an holistic approach to elucidate how people perceive, define, and remember a phenomenon and how they interpret and feel about the phenomenon. (Patton, 2002, p. 104). In data analysis we conduct descriptive analysis to determine and explore the attributes and dimensions(Sekaran, 2003, p. 121) of training experiences of students. The data were collected via online survey from 272 high school students in 7 cities from Turkey. The findings shows that the students most likely to associate training period predominantly with negative characteristics; including construction worker, exploitation, and inequality. We hope the research findings shed a light to industry- school collaborations from another angle.

Keywords:

Phenomenological approach, Metaphors, Tourism Education.