The Role of Social Studies Course in Creating Society with Skilled Citizens: Pre-Service Elementary Teachers Express their Views

Abstract

The aim of this study is to reveal pre-service elementary teachers' views about the role of the Social Studies course in creating a society with skilled citizens. An interpretive research design was adopted in the study. The participants of the study were senior students attending the department of Elementary School Teaching at the Education Faculty of Anadolu University. The data were collected through focus group interview, open-ended survey and elementary school pre-service teachers’ lesson plans. The data were analysed through inductive analysis. In this study, the results of the analyses revealed several themes such as “perception of being skilled", "skilled citizens and society with skilled citizens", "importance of Social Studies course in creating society with skilled citizens", "problems experienced" and "suggested solutions". As a result of this study, which examined the elementary school pre-service teachers’ views about the importance of the Social Studies course in creating a society with skilled citizens, it was concluded that elementary school pre-service teachers gave importance to the course. Moreover, elementary school pre-service teachers determined problems about the content of the Social Studies course and about the implementation of the curriculum, and they put forward suggestions related to the teaching-learning process, content and the stakeholders.