Social Studies Teachers’ Beliefs on Citizenship and Citizenship Education
Abstract
Social studies are one of the most important courses in Turkey regarding citizenship education. The objectives of citizenship education in the social studies curriculum have been clearly expressed. However, teachers' beliefs affect teaching processes and student behaviors in the classroom. This study explores secondary social studies teachers’ beliefs about the concept of citizenship and citizenship education. Qualitative research method has beem used in the research and twelve different social studies teachers have been interviewed. Phipps (2010)’s work has been used to prepare the interview questions developed by the researchers. The data obtained by the semi-structured interview has been analyzed by content analysis. The results show that social studies teachers believe that the main purpose of social studies education is citizenship education, value transfer and teaching of social sciences. Social studies teachers are proud of the activities related to Turkish History and national holidays. All social studies teachers believe that there is a direct relationship between social studies and effective citizen training, however there are some problems with active citizen definitions.
Keywords
Citizenship and Citizenship Education,Teacher,Belief,Social Studies
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