This research investigates the manifestation of basic psychological needs in student metaphors related to school and learning. The study is grounded in Self-Determination Theory (SDT), which identifies autonomy, competence, and relatedness as essential for psychological development and  well-being (Deci & Ryan, 2000). The satisfaction of these needs forms the basis of how students sense their well-being in the school environment and learning and correspondingly, what their school experience is going to be like (Buzzai et al., 2021). Student well-being is a strategic goal in the Estonian educational policy (Estonian Ministry of Education and Research, 2020) and different state-wide student surveys are carried out. However, student school experience and making sense of it, is much more complex than state-wide surveys reveal. In order to better understand student school experiences and satisfaction in the school environment, it is necessary to understand how students see school and learning. 

One possibility in researching student attitude towards school and learning is to analyze student metaphors about school and learning. Often, student attitude toward school are studied explicitly by asking questions about school satisfaction (Lutsoja, 2022). However, student attitude on the thinking level might be automated and subconscious, which means that their understanding about school and learning might not be revealed through explicit questioning, but student implicit attitude must be studied as well (Tian et al., 2010). 

Metaphors can provide a viable solution for this purpose. As wording a metaphor requires a student to really think about the different concepts, the metaphor itself might reveal a deeper understanding of the topic. Metaphors are used more and more in studying student attitudes (Radmard et al., 2022; Demir, 2007; Lahelma, 2002).

 The study's significance lies in its novel approach to understanding students' school experiences and well-being by analyzing metaphors. Previous studies have demonstrated the efficacy of metaphor analysis in understanding beliefs and meanings in education (Lakoff & Johnson, 2011). However, the exploration of student metaphors about school and learning, particularly in the context of psychological basic needs satisfaction, remains largely unexamined. This research aims to fill this gap by determining if and how the analysis of metaphors can give an understanding to students' psychological basic needs satisfaction or frustration. 

The study addresses two primary research questions: 

1. How are  psychological basic needs manifested in metaphors about school and learning?

2. To what extent do these metaphors reflect the satisfaction of basic psychological needs across different school levels?

The data was collected by 94 students who participated in a BA level university course. They had a subject-specific learning task, which was to collect metaphors characterizing school and learning experience from three students. The sentence completion method was used (Holaday et al., 2000). Respondents had to answer two questions. First, they were given the beginning of a sentence: “School is like” by choosing the ending from a given set of words: a family, a prison, a factory/factory, a race arena, a garden, a team, a circus, an amusement park, a zoo. Respondents were also asked to justify their choice. For the second question, the students were not given any options from which to choose a metaphor. Students were asked to complete the following sentence: "Learning is like...", with their own metaphor. The students were asked to justify the sentence they had said. A total of 247 metaphors were collected from students across grades 1 to 12 through an open-ended questionnaire via convenience sampling. All grades of general education were represented in the sample. By grade, students were distributed as follows: 45 respondents from grades 1-3 I, 56 from grades 4-6, 68 from grades 7-9 and 79 from upper secondary school. Metaphors were then analyzed through the deductive content analysis (Elo & Kyngäs, 2008), Each metaphor was examined for its content and underlying implications, specifically focusing on how it related to these psychological needs. The metaphors were categorized based on whether they related to the need for autonomy, competence, or relatedness, and whether they indicated satisfaction, thwarting, or neutrality regarding these needs. This categorization process involved a detailed examination of the content and underlying implications of each metaphor. This study's methodology acknowledges the inherent subjectivity and complexity of metaphor interpretation. To address these challenges, the analysis was conducted by a team of researchers, allowing for multiple perspectives and reducing individual bias. Furthermore, the study employed a rigorous process of triangulation, cross-referencing findings with existing literature on psychological needs and student experiences in education.

Findings reveal that all three basic psychological needs - autonomy, competence and relatedness - are evident in students metaphors about school and learning. However, the satisfaction of these needs varied. The need for autonomy was most thwarted in both school and learning metaphors. In contrast, relatedness was mostly supported in school metaphors but thwarted in learning metaphors. The need for competence showed a mix of support and thwarting across different contexts. Retrieved from the metaphors, the students chose the prison metaphor the most, which was explained by the freedom or restriction of leisure time and having to do forced activities at school. In addition to the loss of freedom in time and space, the respondents pointed out that they do not have a choice of learning content, which may be indicative of teacher-centred learning. The research also identified differences across school levels. Primary school students' metaphors indicated support for autonomy, while secondary school students' metaphors reflected its thwarting, especially in grades 7-9. High school students' metaphors predominantly showed satisfaction of the need for relatedness. These findings suggest that metaphors can be a useful tool in understanding students' psychological basic needs satisfaction in educational settings. They provide a nuanced view of students' experiences and perceptions that goes beyond traditional surveys and questionnaires. The metaphors offer insights into the emotional and psychological aspects of students' school experiences, highlighting areas where their basic needs are being met or neglected.

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