Examination of cultural intelligence levels and democratic attitudes of primary school teachers

The purpose of this study is to determine the cultural intelligence (CI) and attitudes towards democracy (ATD) levels of primary school teachers who teach Human Rights, Citizenship and Democracy (HRCD) and to examine the relationship between them. Another purpose of the study is to obtain the opinions of primary school teachers about the HRCD course and to explain how the teachers evaluate the role of this course in the development of CI and ATD in students. In the study, sequential descriptive pattern, one of the mixed method designs, was used. Data collection tools used in the research: Cultural Intelligence Scale, The Attitude Scale Toward Democracy and a semi-structured interview form. The target population of the study is primary school teachers in the province of Izmir, and the sample consisted of primary school teachers in the districts of Tire, Odemis and Bayındır. Convenience sampling was used for the quantitative part of the study, and maximum variation sampling method was used for the qualitative part of the study. The scales included in the questionnaire were sent to the participants via Google Forms. The questionnaire form was delivered to the classroom teachers from the online groups of the schools. Quantitative data were analyzed using the SPSS 26 program. In the analysis of data; Independent Samples t-Test, one-way ANOVA and Pearson Correlation Analysis were used. Content analysis was used to analyze qualitative data. Qualitative data were analyzed by content analysis. According to the results, the level of ATD of the primary school teachers was found to be high, and the level of CI was found to be relatively high. A significant and positive correlation was found between CI and ATD. In the qualitative findings, although the ATD levels of the classroom teachers are high in general, they do not consider the HRCD course among the significant courses. However, all of the participants stated that students' KZ and ATD levels should be improved through this course. The participants stated that they could not allocate the necessary time for the HRCD course due to the intense training program. It is recommended that the program be prepared in a simpler way. Keywords: Cultural Intelligence, Attitude Towards Democracy, Human Rights, Citizenship and Democracy Course