Secondary school students' perceptions about Turkish elders who had important activities in Turkish history

In Turkish history spanning a wide geography and a wide period of time, important personalities in different areas have been trained. These personalities can contribute to our education process as well as contributing to the social and cultural field. Turkish elders are included in the social studies curriculum, one of the main purposes of which is to raise good citizens with national consciousness. An effective education process can be created by using Turkish elders in values education as well as in the social studies curriculum. The aim of this research is to determine the perceptions of secondary school 7th grade students about Turkish elders (Metehan, Alparslan, Ertuğrul Gazi, Osman Bey, Fatih Sultan Mehmet, Yavuz Sultan Selim, Kanuni Sultan Süleyman, Barbaros Hayrettin Paşa, Mimar Sinan). Based on this main problem, students' associations with Turkish elders, sources of information and ways of identifying were investigated. In accordance with the purpose of the research, the basic qualitative research model, one of the qualitative research designs, was used in the study.The study group of the research consists of 50 secondary school 7th grade students working in a secondary school. A semi-structured study form was used as a data collection tool in the research. Research questions were asked and written answers were obtained by interviewing the students. The data obtained were processed with the content analysis method and tried to make them meaningful. As a result of the research, it was concluded that the students emphasized their activities, managerial and personality traits, historical knowledge and concepts of the period in which they lived, and symbols of that period in their associations with the Turkish elders in the social studies curriculum.In addition, it has been seen that there are in-school and out-of-school sources in the information resources of the students about Turkish elders. It was concluded that they acquired knowledge with the curriculum and the hidden curriculum in school, and with the help of their families or by themselves outside the school.Another result of the research is that students take the personality traits and professional characteristics of Turkish elders as role models.