The effect of the school parliament application and democracy education in acquisition of the concept of democracy at secondary schools (İzmir case)

This research has been conducted in order to reveal the influence of democracy education and school parliament project in enforcing the concept of democracy. The study population is the city of İzmir. A randomly selected group of the 8th year students and social sciences teachers from 2 public schools and 3 private schools are the sample. A survey with a Likert scale consisting of 53 questions to measure the democracy acquisitions of the 8th year students was given. 402 students participated, however only 287 of them were analyzed due to the fact that 115 surveys were not filled in a valid way. The survey conducted had two parts; one with the demographical information and the other with the questions related to the acquisitions gained within the DEOM Project. A survey consisting of 5 open-ended questions to determine the teacher approach towards the DEOM Project and democracy education was given to the social sciences teachers who were in the second sample group within the research. The Likert scale survey was analyzed by SPSS 21 whereas the open-ended question survey was analyzed by content analysis. As a result, it was found out that the DEOM project was effective in helping the students gain the intrinsic democracy culture as targeted. According to some variables, the answers of the students were analyzed and the variable regarding the education level of the father was not found significant whereas the education level of the mother was significant. The monthly income and school variables also appeared significant within some answers given by the students. All research and analysis proved that the DEOM Project was useful in the means of democracy education. It was suggested that the DEOM Project should be continued after some setbacks are maintained and some improvements are made in its application. Key Words: Democracy Education, School Councils, Project