The analysis of primary school teachers' curriculum literacy perceptions and primary school administrators' perceptions of teachers' curriculum literacy skills in the context of progressive philosophy

The purpose of this study is to analyze curriculum literacy perceptions of primary school teachers according to various variables and in the context of progressive philosophy. Also, it aims to analyze primary school administrators 'perceptions of primary school teachers' ability in the aspect of having curriculum literacy skills according to various variables. This descriptive study was conducted with 441 primary school teachers working at public primary schools in the city centres of Diyarbakır, Şırnak and Şanlıurfa, and 163 primary school administrators working at these schools. The data of this study were collected by means of two scales. One of these scales, which was developed by the researcher and whose validity and reliability was ensured through pilot studies is the Curriculum Literacy Perception Scale (CLPS) and the other is the Administrator Perception Scale (APS). Consisting of 18 items based on the five-point likert type, CLPS has three sub-dimensions: Curriculum Items, : Curriculum Implementation and: Curriculum Mentality. As for APS, which consists of 18 items based on the five-point likert type, it has two sub-dimensions: Teachers' Knowledge about: Curriculum and Teachers' Skills regarding the Implementation of: Curricula. After the necessary permissions were obtained, the data collected with both scales were analyzed by using descriptive statistical techniques through SPSS package program. The results reached in the study are as follows: Regarding the curriculum literacy skill, the perceptions of the participant primary school teachers were high in the aspects of the curriculum items and curriculum mentality and very high in the aspect of curriculum implementation. Accordingly, these primary school teachers consider themselves sufficient in terms of curriculum items and curriculum mentality (progressivism and constructivism) and very sufficient in terms of curriculum implementation. Primary school teachers' perception of curriculum literacy did not differ significantly according to demographic variables including branch, education level and seniority. However, according to gender, the curriculum literacy perception levels of male primary school teachers are higher than female primary school teachers. According to the variable "in-service training (IST)", the curriculum literacy perception levels of the teachers who receive IST are higher than those who do not receive this training. In this research, primary school administrators consider primary school teachers' having curriculum literacy skills is sufficient at the medium level in the aspect of curriculum knowledge and sufficient at high level in the aspect of curriculum implementation. Accordingly, it was determined that there is a difference between the primary school teachers' perception of curriculum literacy and primary school administrators' perception of their curriculum literacy skills. According to both primary school administrators' and primary school teachers' perceptions, regarding curriculum literacy participant primary school teachers are more adequate in terms of curriculum implementation than programme knowledge. Primary school administrators 'perceptions of primary school teachers' having curriculum literacy skills did not differ significantly according to demographic variables consisting of gender, branch, education level and seniority, but significantly differed according to their type of duty and IST. This difference shows that primary school administrators find their primary school teachers more adequate than assistant principals in terms of having curriculum literacy skills and curriculum implementation. On the other hand, administrators who received IST about the curriculum found the primary school teachers more sufficient about curriculum knowledge than those who did not receive this training. In conclusion, in this research, it was evaluated that the theoretical (knowledge) and application (practical) dimensions of curriculum literacy skill may change according to different contexts and cultures, and different dimensions may be added to the scope of this concept depending on the new data coming from the application. Keywords: Curriculum literacy, Primary school teachers' perceptions, Primary school administrators' perceptions, Progressive curricula, Curriculum literacy scale