Sustainable development in social studies course: Opinions of social studies teachers and secondary school students

The aim of this research is to reveal the opinions of social studies teachers and secondary school 8th grade students on sustainable development in social studies course. The exploratory sequential design, which is one of the mixed method designs, was used in the research. 12 social studies teachers and 13 secondary school 8th grade students working in Eskişehir city center participated in the qualitative phase of the research in the 2020-2021 academic year. In the quantitative phase of the research, 146 social studies teachers and 556 secondary school 8th grade students working in the city center of Eskişehir in the 2021-2022 academic year participated. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, "Teacher Opinions Questionnaire on Sustainable Development in Social Studies Course" and "Student Opinions Questionnaire on Sustainable Development in Social Studies Course." In the research, inductive analysis was used in the analysis of qualitative data, and descriptive statistics were used in the analysis of quantitative data. As a result of the research, it has been determined that social studies teachers have the opinion that social studies course plays a functional role in raising awareness for sustainable development in secondary school students. In addition, it was seen that secondary school 8th grade students agreed with the opinion that they learned the topics related to sustainable development in the social studies course. As a result of the research, based on the results obtained, various suggestions were made for practice and research to be carried out.