Perceptions and experiences of social studies teachers and secondary school students on waste battery collection compaign

Waste batteries cause environmental pollution to increase rapidly due to the chemicals and heavy metals they contain. Countries are trying to create awareness by carrying out various practices in order to prevent damage caused by waste batteries to the environment and human health. In Turkey, with the waste battery collection campaigns organized at schools, batteries are collected before being released into nature. Environmental education is provided as part of various courses in order to ensure the participation of students in the waste battery collection campaigns. The phenomenon of waste battery collection is also being addressed in the Social Studies course which deals with environmental education in an interdisciplinary way. This study aims to examine perceptions and experiences of Social Studies teachers and secondary school students on waste battery collection campaign carried out in schools. Within this context, the current study was designed using a phenomenological qualitative research approach. In the research, a school was chosen by using the purposeful sampling method. Three Social Studies teachersand six 7th grade students with the highest participation in the waste battery collection campaign were selected and included in the study. Research data were collected through semi-structured interviews and focus group interviews. 18 interview transcripts were uploaded into the Nvivo11 package program, and divided into codes and themes. The data obtained from codes and themes were analyzed by using inductive analysis technique and revealed 14 main findings. As a result of the study, it has been determined that the participation of teachers at the waste battery compains were inadequate, s. However, the students were actively participated and internalized the campaigns Based on these results, suggestions have been made to improve the relationship between waste battery collection campaigns and the Social Studies course.