Perceptions of primary school teachers about educational philosophies and their views on curriculum, teacher-student roles and teaching practices

The general purpose of this research is to examine the perceptions of primary school teachers about educational philosophies and their views about curriculum, (purpose, content, learning-teaching process), teacher-student roles and own teaching practices. The research is a mixed method which is conducted with a total of 231 teachers voluntarily participating in the primary schools in the central districts of Adana (Yüreğir, Seyhan, Çukurova, Sarıçam) in the 2013-2014 academic years. In the study, quantitative data were collected and analyzed first. Then the qualitative data were collected. The "Philosophy Preference Assesment" which developed by Wiles and Bondi (1993) and adapted to Turkish by Doğanay and Sarı (2003) was used to collect quantitative data of the research. The qualitative data obtained from the interviews were collected by the researcher using the "Semi-structured Interview Form" developed in line with expert opinions. Quantitative data of the study were analyzed by using Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis tests besides descriptive statistics. In this process, SPSS statistical program was used. Content analysis was conducted on qualitative data. As a result of the research, primary school teachers' perceptions of their educational philosophy seem to concentrate on the experimentalism philosophy. However, it has been found that teachers have a high eclectic understanding of other educational philosophies. (Existentialism, Perennialism, Idealism). Gender, type of school graduated, and years of service did not make any significant difference in teachers' philosophical perceptions. Teachers with age 41 and older had a significantly higher level of acceptance of idealism than other teachers. Professional experience has been the most influential factor in the development of teachers' philosophical views about education. The effect of pre-service and in-service training is low. Teachers who emphasize the aims of education more socially, stated that they should include subjects related to positive sciences, mathematics, logic, moral rules, information to be used in daily life, native language and foreign language, rules of conduct, art and democracy. Teachers have expressed a qualified learning environment as an academically collaborative, physically equipped and socially democratic learning environment. Teachers' expectation from students in the classroom environment; they must be active (conducting research, fulfilling responsibilities, interrogating, keeping a high sense of learning, etc.), control their learning time (structuring mind, completing the missing, using what they learn in their life) and improve their social skills (cooperation, empathy, respect for different thoughts, etc.). Teachers defined their roles in the learning-teaching process as guidance, planning, modeling and effective leadership in learning. Teachers' perceptions of their educational philosophy are concentrated on the philosophy of experimentalism. However, the effects of other philosophies have also been seen in the explanations of the educational purpose, content and how the learning-teaching environment should be. Keywords: Education, philosophy, teacher, student, curriculum