A case study on the primary grades civics education

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions and ideas of the fifth grade elementary school teachers with respect to civics education, the accusation of interdisciplinary performance expectations for Human Rights and Civics set for in the Social Studies program, students? acquisition level of objectives, and the general conception of citizenship in education programs. For data collection, qualitative and quantitative methods were used in the study. The universe for the student sample consists of 2074 fifth grade students attending at total 39 public schools in the county town of Bafra, Samsun, during the 2008-2009 academic term. The study group of the teachers participated consists of 28 fifth grade teachers working at these public schools, who were selected by the method of convenience sampling. All the participants were informed that their participation is voluntary. The data for the teacher sample were collected by using the interview technique among the qualitative methods. For the student sample, the achievement test was used for data collection. The content analysis was used in the analysis of the data obtained from the teachers, whereas the technique of ?material analysis? was used for the date obtained from students. Given the results obtained from the teacher interviews, teachers declared that 7they teach in accordance with the interdisciplinary objectives set for Human Rights and Civics, and that their students successfully obtain these objectives. The teachers who participated also declared that although families, media and social environment have some negative effects on the constitution of citizenship consciousness, the education system in general are raising citizens who are active participants, well aware of their rights and responsibilities. Results obtained from the student achievement test used in the research indicated that, of the 55 objectives, 21 were successfully obtained.Keywords: Civics, citizenship education, primary school, primary school teachers