Determining the political literacy skill levels of middle school students

The ability of individuals to become active citizens who know their rights and responsibilities in the society they live in and the effort to develop a democratic society are among the primary objectives of states. States use education and training processes as a tool to realize this goal. This research was conducted to determine the political literacy levels of secondary school students who are members of the society and decision makers of tomorrow. The study group of the research consists of 289 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade students in Altınordu district of Ordu province. Mixed methods research method was used in the study. The data used in the quantitative research part of the study were collected with the "Political Literacy Scale" developed by Aslan (2019) and analyzed with IBM SPSS 29.0.2.0 program. According to the results of the quantitative research, it was concluded that the political literacy levels of secondary school students were low. The study group of the qualitative research part of the study consists of 48 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade middle school students in Altınordu district of Ordu province. Qualitative research data were obtained using a semi-structured interview form consisting of 5 questions, and the data were analyzed with MAXQDA Analytics Pro 12 (Relese 12.3.2) program.