Social Studies Education

Abstract
Since the foundation of the Republic, the Turkish Education System has been hierarchically structured. The hierarchical steps vary from pre-school education to postgraduate levels. The transition amongst those educational stages has mostly depended on various kinds of nation-wide exams. In order to investigate the effectiveness of those practices and to assess how those practices have influenced individuals in the recent past, it is necessary to reach the view points and experiences of individuals from various age groups and educational backgrounds. This study aims to reveal the effectiveness of those educational transition practices and their influences on individuals by means of examining the view points and experiences of people who attended different schooling stages in the last 50 years. This study was designed as a qualitative phenomenological research. Its data was collected through semi-structured interviews carried out with individuals from three age groups residing in the provinces of Balıkesir and Uşak. The analysis of the data reveals that the participants of this study think that the administration of the transition between various educational levels through some nation-wide exams is inevitable, but those examinations are not authentically assessing students’ abilities or skills. Besides, the exams have not only been negatively influencing the formal educational activities in schools but also bringing lots of burdens for students and parents. The participants also emphasised on the necessity of putting new transition systems into practice incorporating various options.
Keywords: Transition between schooling levels, examinations, individual view points and experiences.

Öz:

Sözlü tarih, tarihin veri toplama yöntemlerinden biridir. Bunun yanında sözlü tarih, uzun bir süredir bütün okul kademelerinde bir öğrenme ve öğretme yöntemi kullanılmaktadır. Bu çalışmalarda genellikle tecrübeli insanlarla yapılan görüşmelerden elde edilen sonuçlar, öğrenciler tarafından analiz edilmekte ve bu sonuçların raporları yazılmaktadır. Ancak ilkokulda yapılan çalışmalarda soy ağacı çıkarma ve kutu müze yapma gibi etkinliklere rastlanmaktadır. Bu çalışma kapsamında ilkokul öğrencilerine (4. sınıf) sözlü tarih yöntemi öğretilmiş ve kendi aile tarihlerini araştırmaları istenmiştir. Öğrenciler, kendi aile tarihlerini araştırmış, kendi soy ağaçlarını çıkarmış ve ailelerinin hikâyesini yazmaya çalışmışlardır. Eylem araştırması modeline göre yapılan bu çalışmanın amacı, sözlü tarih yöntemini kullanarak aile tarihlerini öğrenen, ailesinin soy ağacını çıkaran ve hikâyesini yazan öğrencilerin tecrübelerini ortaya koymaktır. Ayrıca amaçlı örnekleme tekniğine göre belirlenen çalışma grubu 30 öğrenciden oluşturulmuştur. Veri toplama araçları olarak açık uçlu anketler, öğrencilerin soy ağacı çizimleri, yazdığı hikâyeler ve araştırmacı öğretmenin yapılandırılmamış gözlemleri kullanılmıştır. Elde edilen sonuçlar, öğrencilerin yöntemi kullanmaktan hoşlandıkları, ailesi ve yakın çevresini daha yakından tanıdığı, karşılaştırma yaptıkları ve değişim ve sürekliliği algıladıklarını göstermiştir. Ayrıca bazı sorunlara rağmen onlar kendi soyağaçlarını çıkarmış ve aile hikâyelerini yazmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler: Sözlü Tarih Yöntemi, İlkokul, Aile Tarihi, Değişim ve Süreklilik, Soy Ağacı

Abstract

Oral history is one of the data collection methods of history. Besides, oral history is used as a learning and teaching method in all school levels. In those studies, generally, the results which obtained by interviewing with older people are analyzed and written by students. However, when the studies are conducted in primary school, there are activities such as drawing an ancestry tree and making a box museum.
In the content of this study, primary school students (4th Grade) were taught oral history method and the students are asked to inquire their history of families. Then, students inquired their family histories, drew their family trees, and tried to write stories of their families. The aim of the study which is based on the action research model is to uncover the experiences of students, who learn family histories, draw the family trees of their family, and write their families’ stories using the oral history method. The working group of study, which is determined according to purposive sampling technique, is formed from 30 students. As data collection tools are used open-ended surveys, family trees drawings, and family stories which are written by students. This research results have shown that the students, who used oral history, liked the method, they got to know their own families and near environment closely, they make comparisons, and they perceived change and continuity. In spite of some problems, they have drawn their family trees and wrote family stories.

Keywords: Oral history method, Primary School, Family History, Change and Contunity, Ancestry Tree

EXTENDED SUMMARY

Introduction

Raising a ‘good citizen’ is one of the most important purposes of states. In order to raise good citizens, the role of schools is crucial and cannot be ignored. Hence, schools play a crucial role in order to raise good citizens. Since education of ‘good citizen’ covers in-class and out-class activities, teachers have an important role in this process. In addition to teachers’ contribution, family environment is the baseline of raising good citizen, so parents are responsible as well.

When the literature is reviewed, it is seen that there are many inquiries about citizenship education. The qualities of good citizen in these studies referred as obeying rules, helping others, actively participating in
society, respecting for others, voting in elections, avoiding destructive and excessive actions and being patriotic. When studies on citizenship education in the world and Turkey are compared, it is seen that behavior
that nations expect from good citizens are quite similar.

In spite of these significant studies which were done in Turkey and around the world, lack of family involvement and their opinions on good citizenship have not been sufficiently researched in these studies, which is an important deficiency. Among these studies, Prior (1999) has only researched parents’ opinions about concept of ‘good citizen’. The research is based on viewpoints of teachers and students as well. Similarly, parents’ opinions on citizenship education is also limited in Turkey. There are only two studies that researched parents’ perceptions on citizenship education. The first study was conducted by Ersoy (2012) and the other done by Kus, Ozturk, and Elvan (2014). However, parents’ opinion on the concept of good citizen was not studied in these articles. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to unearth the opinion of parents of secondary school students in regards to the concept of ‘good citizen’, good citizenship education in family and school.

Method

In this study, phenomenological research design which one of the qualitative research methods was utilized. As it is known, phenomenological research design is used to identify human experiences regarding a phenomenon which is described by participants (Creswell, 2003; Creswell, 2015). Since the study aims to uncover experiences and viewpoints of parents about concept of ‘good citizen’ and citizenship education in family and school, phenomenological research design fits very well with the purpose of the study.
The working group the study consisted of 16 (8 males, 8 females) parents of middle school students. While some children (8) are studying at a public school in Adiyaman, others (8) are studying at a private school in Istanbul. The working group was selected to the criterion sampling method which is one of the purposive sampling methods. Parents who have different educational and economical features from each class level (4-7 grades) was selected, so to compare two parent groups. Lastly, the codes were used instead of the real names of the parents to protect privacy of the participants.

Data Collection Tool

In regard to research method, phenomenological interview which is very useful for obtaining personal opinion and experiences of the participants was utilized. The phenomenological interview consists of three parts:
Focusing on the life history, the details of experiences, and the reflection on the meaning of the data. In other words, the phenomenological interview focuses on the experiences and the meanings of data provided by participants by open-ended questions (Seidman, 2006).

Data Analysis

Students parents were interviewed with open-ended questions related to concept of ‘good citizen’, citizenship education in family and school in order to collect detailed data. All interviews were recorded by a voice
recorder and then all recordings were transcribed. First, all raw data were read carefully to acquire general idea, and then some irrelevant statements related to phenomenon were extracted and same statements were combined, and finally the transcribed data were analyzed with phenomenological data analysis. Later, clusters
of themes from the data were figured out. Finally, themes and results were analyzed and interpreted (Creswell,1998; Woods, 2006). To ensure the validity and reliability of the data analysis transcriptions were first evaluated independently by three investigators. Then, the codes, categories and themes determined by the three researchers were combined. Lastly, the combined data were analyzed and interpreted.

Conclusion, Discussion and Suggestions

Having interviewed with parents, researchers then analyzed the collected data with content analysis technique. At the end of the analysis, three themes were figured out; parents’ perceptions on the concept ‘good citizen’, citizenship education in family and citizenship education in school.
Research results have shown that parents want to raise their children as a ‘good citizen’, both for the country and community. They have also emphasized that a ‘good citizen’ should has good behaviors such as protecting of commonwealth, respecting to people, protecting of nature and obeying rules (law). These findings are consistent with some other research findings (Dyneson, Gross & Nickel, 1988; Prior, 1999; Alazzi, 2009; Yesilbursa, 2015 and Kizilay, 2015). The contribution of the characteristics of a good citizen to the society has been pointed out in these studies.
According to the parents, the most important reason for raising a 'good citizen' is to prevent terrorism and chaos against the country and society and to help children become useful individuals. In this regard, a great
deal of duties and responsibilities fall to the family in raising good citizens. In this process, the most important responsibility of parents is to be a role model to children in order for them to get adopt good behavior and habits, and to teach them social rules. However, the parents face some significant issues in raising 'good citizen'. Parents are struggling with major difficulties such as having an unfavorable social circle, inappropriate behavior of familiar people, the television and internet addiction. Ersoy (2012) in her research found similar problems that the families face while rearing their children.
Additionally, it has been determined that the parents do not have sufficient knowledge about citizenship education in the school. Nonetheless, they have commented about teachers’ responsibilities in raising ‘good citizen’. According to them, teachers should have various responsibilities such as being fair to students, considering of the students' personal characteristics and making good connections with parents.
Furthermore, the parents generally think that both teachers and parents have common responsibilities in raising children as good citizens. These results have been discussed in other studies as well. While Fry & O’Brien
(2015) pointed out that teachers have some important responsibilities, Keles and Tonga (2014) mentioned that families play more effective roles than teachers in terms of raising children as good citizens. Guven, Tertemiz and Bulut (2009) underscored the importance of cooperation of the family, the close environment and teachers. Based on these results, it can be concluded that teachers and parents need to work together in the process of raising good citizens.
Based on these results, some suggestions can be made. The opinions and perceptions of the parents should be further investigated on citizenship education. These studies might provide very meaningful results in terms of understanding features which considered to be important by parents while they raise their children as good citizens.

ÖZET

Sosyal bilgiler dersi, Cumhuriyet'in kuruluşundan günümüze kadar değişik isimlerle okutulmuştur. Bu dersin amacı, kendi tarihini bilen, çevresini tanıyan ve vatandaşlık görevlerini yerine getiren bireyler yetiştirmektir. Bugüne kadar birçok araştırmada sosyal bilgiler eğitimi ve öğretiminin kalitesi sorgulanmış ve yeni yöntemler denenmiştir. Ancak sosyal bilgiler dersinin öğrencilerin hayatında ne tür izler bıraktığını araştıran çalışmalar yapılmamıştır.

Bu çalışmanın amacı, 1960'dan günümüze kadar sosyal bilgiler dersini almış kişilerin anılarını ortaya çıkarmaktır. Bu kapsamda sosyal bilgiler dersini almış 15 kişiyle sözlü tarih görüşmesi yapılmıştır. Görüşmelerde sosyal bilgilerin isimleri, müfredat konuları, ders kitapları, uygulanan öğretim yöntem ve teknikleri, kullanılan materyaller, ölçme ve değerlendirme yöntemleri, sosyal bilgiler öğretmenleri ve dersin kaynak kişilere katkılarıyla ilgili anılar ele alınmıştır. Veri toplama araçları olarak sözlü tarih görüşme kayıtları ve kaynak kişilerden alınan tarihi materyaller kullanılmıştır. Ulaşılan veriler, betimsel olarak analiz edilmiştir.

Bu araştırmanın sonuçları, kaynak kişilerin sosyal bilgiler öğretmenlerinin diğer konulardan daha iyi hatırladıklarını göstermektedir. Bunun yanında sosyal bilgiler derslerinde geçmişten günümüze en çok düz anlatım yöntemi ve soru cevap tekniğinin kullanıldığı tespit edilmiştir. Ayrıca öğrenci başarısının genellikle yazılı ve sözlü sınavlarla değerlendirildiği ortaya çıkarılmıştır.

ABSTRACT

The social studies lesson has been taught with various names since the foundation of the  Republic to the present. The aim of this course is to raise people who know their own history,  know their environment and fulfill their civic duties. In  many types of research, the quality of social studies education and teaching has  been questioned and new  methods have been tested.  However, no studies have been done to investigate that social studies course have left what kind of impression on students' lives.

The purpose of this study is to reveal the memories of people who have taken the social studies  course  from  the  1960s  to  the  present.  In  this  context,  oral  history  interviews  were conducted  with  15  people.  In  the  interviews,  memories  about  the  names  of  social  studies, curriculum topics, textbooks, methods, techniques and materials of teaching, measurement and evaluation  methods,  social  studies  teachers  and  contributions  of  the  course  to  source  persons were  addressed.  As  data  collection  tools  oral  history  interview  recordings  and  obtained historical materials from source persons were used. The data were analyzed descriptively.

The  results  of  the  study  prove  that  the  source  persons  remember  better  their  social studies  teachers  than  other  matters.  Besides,  it  has  been  determined  that  direct  instruction method and question and answer technique are the most used in social studies lessons from past to  today.  It  has  also  been  uncovered  out  that  student  success  is  generally  evaluated  through written and oral exams.

ABSTRACT

It is seen that oral history has not been used enough in the field of education in Turkey such as those in the United States, England, and Canada and the method is not being systematically integrated into educational practices. The aim of this current study is to determine the pedagogical potential of oral history, its contributions to students and the issues that students can be encountered in the process of integrating it into the social studies lessons. In order to accomplish these goals, exploratory research design, one of the qualitative research methods was utilized. The working group was consisted of sixth-grade students (20) according to purposive sample method. Obtained data were analyzed and interpreted by conducting content analysis method.

The research findings have indicated that the oral history implementation has contributed to students in personal, academic, and psychological dimensions. The study has improved the most communication skills of students, besides making many contributions such as using historical research steps, interviewing, learning local history and acquiring self-confidence. All these results have indicated that oral history can be used as an effective and efficient learning and teaching method in social studies classes.

ÖZET

Sözlü tarih, Amerika Birleşik Devletleri, İngiltere ve Kanada gibi ülkelerde olduğu gibi Türkiye’de eğitim alanında yeterince kullanılmadığı için eğitim uygulamalarına sistemli bir şekilde entegre edilememiştir. Bu ihtiyaçtan yola çıkarak tasarlanan çalışmanın amacı, sözlü tarihin sosyal bilgiler derslerindeki pedagojik potansiyelini, katkılarını ve sosyal bilgiler derslerine entegre edilme sürecinde karşılaşılabilecek muhtemel sorunları belirlemektir. Bu amaçlara ulaşmak için araştırma modeli olarak nitel araştırma yöntemlerinden keşfedici araştırma yöntemi kullanılmıştır. Çalışma grubu, amaçlı örneklem yöntemine göre 6. sınıf öğrencilerinden (20) oluşturulmuştur. Toplanan veriler, içerik analiziyle değerlendirilmiş ve yorumlanmıştır.

Çalışmanın bulguları; sözlü tarih uygulamasının öğrencilere kişisel, akademik ve psikolojik boyutlarda çeşitli katkıları olduğunu göstermektedir. Çünkü bu çalışma, öğrencilerin en çok iletişim becerilerini geliştirmiş, bunun yanında tarihsel araştırma basamaklarını kullanma, görüşme yapma, yerel tarihi öğrenme ve özgüven kazanma gibi birçok katkı yapmıştır. Bütün bu sonuçlar, sözlü tarihin sosyal bilgiler derslerinde etkili ve verimli bir öğrenme ve öğretme yöntemi olarak kullanılabileceğini ortaya çıkarmıştır.

Bu yeni basım kapsamlı bir gözden geçirme ve yazma sürecinin ürünüdür. Dördüncü basımı okuyanların yorum ve değerlendirmelerinden yola çıkarak aşağıdaki
değişiklikleri yaptım:  ‘Kaç vakaya ihtiyacım var?’ mahiyetindeki süreğen meseleyi ele almak üzere durum çalışmalarından genellemelere ulaşmayı kapsayan yeni bir bölüm ilave ettim.
• Kitabın genel düzenlemesi basitleştirildi: Şimdi yalnızca üç ana kısım var ve nitel araştırmalar nasıl daha inanılır hale getirilebilir konusu, durum çalışmalarıyla ilgili bölümün hemen arkasına daha erken bir konuma alındı.
• Kitabın tamamı boyunca iki nitel araştırma modeli tutarlı olarak ele alındı:
Natüralizm ve yapılandırmacılık. Güncel yaklaşım ve kullanımla uyumlu olan bu işleniş tarzının öğrencilerin kitabı okumalarını ve takip etmelerini kolaylaştırdığına inanıyorum.
• İşletme, eğitim, sosyal hizmet ve coğrafya kadar sağlıkla ilgili çalışmaları da kapsayan yakın zamanlarda yapılmış birçok durum incelemesi örneği kitaba dâhil edildi.