Through the Eyes of Parents: “The Lesson That Makes Sense When You Read It: Social Studies!”

Year 2025, Volume: 7 Issue: 2, 208 - 220, 31.12.2025

Kübra Nur Toksoy , Erhan Yaylak

https://doi.org/10.51535/tell.1672398

Abstract

In this study, it was aimed to understand the perspectives of parents towards the social studies course at the secondary school level and to determine the importance that parents attribute to this course. The research group consisted of 19 parents (10 female, 9 male) with children studying in middle school. Participants were determined by convenience sampling method. The study was conducted with phenomenology design, one of the qualitative research methods. The data were collected through a semi-structured interview form and analyzed by content analysis. According to the results of the study, the majority of parents do not prioritize the social studies course in terms of academic achievement. However, they emphasize that the course is important in terms of skills such as socialization, preparation for life, national consciousness, and citizenship. Parents state that the content of the course is not fully known, that while it is more suitable for students with high verbal skills, it requires memorization for numerical students and is therefore put on the back burner. Although most of the parents stated that they did not encounter any prejudices about the social studies course in their environment, some of them encountered prejudices that the course only includes history and that its academic contribution and point return are low.

Keywords

Social studies , Parent views , Course perception , School-family cooperation.

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