Social sciences teacher candidates democratic participation levels and their views on democratic participation

The study has been made to reveal the level of democratic participation and opinions of social studies teacher candidates about democratic participation. The mixed method in which the quantitative and the qualitative methods are used together has been used in the study. In the quantitative part of the study, easily accessable case sampling has been used. The sample of the study has been created by 882 social studies teacher candidates in total who study at the 1st-4th grade at 7 different universities. Developed by Keçe and Dinç (2015) "The Democratic Participation Scale" has been applied to 882 social studies teacher candidates. In the qualitative part of the study, the criterion sampling method has been used and a structured interview form that has been preapared by the researcher has been applied to the social studies teacher candidates from different universities who study at the 4th grade. Statistical operations have been made on the quantitative data according to the variables and .05 significance level has been taken as a criterion in the interpretation of the quantitative data. The qualitative data has been analyzed using content analysis. As a result of the research, in all the dimensions of "the Democratic Participation Scale", it has been noticed that there is no significant differences in these variables; the area of residence, the settlement that the family lives in, the education status of the mother and the education status of the father. In some dimensions of the scale, it has been noticed that there is a significant difference in these variables; the university where the teacher candidate study, gender, the status level in society, the economic situation of the family and frequency of social media use. The participants have identified the political participation as "being sensitive to the elections", "sharing the political views", "taking action / doing an act","following the things related to politics", "having a say in something" and "keeping in touch / interact with the politicians".