DEMOCRATIC VALUES OF PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS AND TEACHERS

Dr. Murat Tasdan
Kafkas University
Ugur Akin
Ankara University

Abstract

Teachers, who are supposed to teach democratic values in classroom environments, should adopt such values first and reflect them into their practices. It is thought that examining whether teachers have democratic values from the beginning of their pre-service training will be useful for a better understanding of the current situation. In surveys, it was observed that the number of studies where levels of having democratic values of prospective teachers and present teachers in Turkey were compared was low. From this lack of research, the main aim of the study is to examine differences between perceptions of prospective teachers and present teachers about democratic values according to various variables. In the present study designed as a descriptive model, quantitative data collection techniques were used. The study group consists of 240 prospective teachers from Gazi University, Karadeniz Technical University, and Kafkas University, and 143 teachers from Ankara, Kars and Trabzon. In the study, “Scale of Democratic Values” developed by Selvi (2006) was used as a data gathering tool. In data analysis, frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, parametric (ANOVA and independent samples t-test) and non-parametric (Mann Whitney U Test) variance tests were used. The results of the study showed that the prospective teachers included in the study had higher perceptions about democratic values than the present teachers in the dimension of Rights of Education and Solidarity, and the present teachers had higher perceptions about democratic values than the prospective teachers in the dimension of Freedom.

Keywords

Teacher, Prospective teacher, Democratic value.