Democracy and citizenship in primary education

The purpose of this study is to investigate social studies and classroom teachers? level of knowledge on citizenship themes, importance attribution, their citizenship behaviors, and the relationship among those variables.Citizenship and Citizenship education have gained importance over the years. In Turkey, this importance gained even more momentum due to the Primary Curricula of 2005. The Citizenship curriculum differs from the previous ones in terms of its underpinning theory, its aims and expectations from both teachers and students. This study is carried out because of its heightened importance.The study was carried out during 2008-2009 academic year. The sample of the study consists of 319, 240 classroom teachers and 79 social studies, teachers working in Uşak at the time of the study. A 5-scale-Likert type questionnaire was developed to collect data. Total reliability of the scale is 0.81 Crombach?s Alpha.The data collected through the measurement scale was subjected to descriptive statistical analysis, correlation and regression analysis. According to the results of this study; teachers? levels of knowledge and behavior are generally high. Teachers? highest scores was on the category of `Democracy: Respect and Equality?. It is also found that the more teachers have knowledge, the more they attributed importance to the particular citizenship theme. The most important factor for teachers for exhibiting certain citizenship behavior appears to be the knowledge level on the citizenship theme. Stepwise regression analysis suggests that teachers? importance attribution to citizenship themes comes after their knowledge and their action on the theme.Key Words: Citizenship, Citizenship Education, Democracy