Religious Culture and Ethics teachers' moral literacy levels and their views on moral literacy

The aim of this study is to examine the moral literacy levels of Religious Culture And Ethıcs teachers and their views on moral literacy skills. The population of the study is 469 Religious Culture And Ethıcs teachers working in Muş province in the 2023-2024 academic year. The sample of the study is 215 Religious Culture And Ethıcs teachers selected by simple random sampling method in the quantitative dimension and 11 RCMK teachers selected by easily accessible case sampling in the qualitative dimension. In the study, an exploratory sequential mixed method design was used in which both quantitative and qualitative data were used together. The general survey model was preferred in the quantitative dimension of the study and the case study model was preferred in the qualitative dimension. The "Personal Information Form" developed by the researcher and the "Moral Literacy Scale" developed by Tekin (2022) were used to collect the quantitative data. The scale consists of 20 items and 5 sub-dimensions: "Moral Reasoning", "Moral Awareness", "Moral Imagination", "Moral Sensitivity" and "Moral Determination". "Personal Information Form" and "Semi-structured Teacher Interview Form for Moral Literacy" developed by the researcher were used to collect the qualitative data of the study. The interview form consists of 8 open-ended questions. SPSS 22.0 package program was used to analyze the quantitative data and MAXQDA 2020 package program was used to analyze and evaluate the qualitative data. According to the results of the quantitative data of the study, it was seen that the moral literacy levels of the Religious Culture And Ethıcs teachers were high. In addition, the moral literacy levels of the teachers did not differ significantly according to the variables of gender, age, marital status, graduated secondary education institution, graduated higher education institution and religious education in any religious group. However, the moral literacy levels of the teachers showed a significant difference according to the variables of professional seniority and the general attitude of the families in terms of fulfilling moral attitudes and behaviors. According to the results of the qualitative data of the study, it was determined that the teachers had knowledge about how moral education should be given, what the concept of moral literacy is, what competencies the religious studies teachers should have in moral literacy and how moral literacy skills should be given to students, and that teachers were generally competent in providing moral literacy skills to students. However, it was concluded that teachers had various problems in teaching moral issues to students and that the moral literacy status of students was generally poor. Based on the results of the study, it was suggested that studies should be conducted to examine the relationship between the general attitudes of the families and the moral literacy levels of the participants in terms of fulfilling moral attitudes and behaviors by using an attitude inventory that measures the perception of the general attitudes of the families, to develop measurement tools that will comprehensively measure the moral literacy levels of the students and to examine the moral literacy levels of the students.