Values in Social Media from the Viewpoint of Social Studies Teacher Candidates

Abstract

The aim of this research is to determine the values that social studies teacher candidates reflect on social media. Phenomenological design has been employed in this study. The participants are students studying at Program in Social Studies Education of an Education Faculty affiliated with a state university in Turkey. Research data was collected through semi-structured interviews conducted with 12 teacher candidates and was analyzed via inductive analysis. Research results have shown that “respect”, “privacy”, “objectivity”, “being patient”, and “ethics” are among the most neglected values by individuals on the social media. On the contrary the list of values that the participants believe that individuals reflect on social media include “solidarity”, “respect”, “alturism”, “sensitivity”, and “love”. As for participating teacher candidates, the values that they, themselves, generally ignore on social media are “ethical values”, “being patient”, “objectivity”, “patriotizm”, “being considerate”, and “sensitivity”. Again, as far as the particiapants are concerned, “respect”, “sensitivity”, “ethical values”, “alturism”, and “honesty” are those that they, themselves, often reflect on social media. Based on the research results, relevant suggestions have been made about how to reflect values on social media.