Culture of fear in the context of risk society in elementary, secondary, and high schools (Muğla province)

The purpose of this study is to reveal the fears experienced by school administrators and teachers working in public schools along with their increasing risk perceptions toward the teaching profession. In line with the general purpose of the research, in the first stage, the opinions of school administrators and teachers about the risk situations in schools were examined. Semi-structured pre-interviews using the snowball sampling technique were conducted with 11 participants. The obtained data were analyzed with thematic content analysis. In the second stage of the study, the risk perceptions of school administrators and teachers were examined. At this stage, Risk Perception Scale was developed. After the scale development studies, 453 participants (school administrators and teachers) were included in the study. Descriptive statistics, t-test and ANOVA were used in the analysis of the findings. In the last stage of the study, the situations that school administrators and teachers fear in their professional life were examined. At this stage, where the maximum diversity sampling technique was used, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 participants. The findings were analyzed with thematic content analysis. According to the findings of the research, it has been determined that the risk perceptions of school administrators and teachers working in public education institutions emerge in a wide variety of situations, their risk perception levels are close to high, and the recent situations in education have pushed school administrators and teachers to fear from different situations. Keywords: culture of fear, risk society, school administrators, teachers, fear, risk