In the process of education, different tools are used to reach the educational objectives. These tools provide students' interest and participation in the course, while providing different learning experiences that contribute to the realization of permanent learning. One of the materials commonly used in educational activities is textbooks. Textbooks are the most widely used materials for teachers and students as primary sources. In this context, the purpose of this research is to reveal primary school teachers’ perceptions about the concept of math textbooks by means of metaphors. The working group of this research, executed with phenomenology method, consists of 120 primary school teachers working at the public schools of İscehisar in 2015-2016 school year. Research data was collected by completing the following form: “Math textbooks is like …………… Because …………….” According to research evidences, primary school teachers produced 90 metaphors and these metaphors were grouped under 9 categories. Stated metaphors were grouped under these 9 categories; complex-incomprehensive, deficient-insufficient, failure to meet expectations, valuable-rich, enjoyable-delighting, important-necessary, boring-monotonous, tiring-challenging, guide-directive. The most frequently repeated metaphors revealed by primary school teachers were arranged as; labyrinth, puzzle, hollow box, empty set, chaos, key, soup, life, story, nightmare, winless bird, deadwood, toy block, ladder, ocean, game, salad, creeper, loaded truck. In consequence of the research, it has been determined that 68.33% of primary school teachers had negative perceptions and 31.67% of them had positive perceptions related to math textbooks. According to this result, the majority of primary school teachers find the expressions in math textbooks complex, boring and tiring. It was also stated that there are not enough examples, activities and problems in the textbooks. Nevertheless, some teachers stated that math textbooks, which are the main source of information in conducting the lessons systematically, are important guiding materials.

Primary school teacher, math textbooks, metaphor, perception.