Examining social studies teacher candidates' opinions about teaching controversial subjects

Social Studies courses play a major role in training, to fulfill the function of acquiring the knowledge, skills and values necessary to train the desired citizen type. Controversial issues are a very useful and effective tool for educating individuals who are the main goal of the Social Studies course and who have developed advanced thinking skills and internalized the questioning.The Social Studies course needs to use this functional and effective tool in its hand in the best way possible in education. In this point, it is aimed to determine the opinions of prospective teachers about the use of controversial subjects in the teaching of social studies and to evaluate these opinions in terms of class, gender and income level variables. In the research, the mixed method used in combination of descriptive screening and case study models was applied. In the descriptive screening model, data were collected using a questionnaire. case study model, data were collected using semi-structured interview technique. The "Controversial Subject Questionnaire for Social Studies Teacher Candidates" questionnaire developed by Alagöz (2014) was applied to 222 teacher candidates in the Department of Social Studies Teacher Education at Fırat University. The interview form created by the researcher was applied to 25 Social Studies teacher candidates. In the analysis of the data obtained from the questionnaires, SPSS 17.0 package program; descriptive analysis method was used in the analysis of the data obtained from the interviews. The findings are presented and interpreted in tabular form. The results of the survey showed that there were no significant differences in the opinions of prospective teachers regarding the use of controversial subjects in the teaching of social studies according, gender, class and income level variables. Interview results; teacher candidates regarded social issues, current issues, education, politics, gender, religion, economy, sports, democracy, justice and teacher appointments as controversial issues; has shown that the vast majority are positively approaching the use of controversial issues in the teaching of Social Studies and the right to debate and question individuals. According to prospective teachers, during the discussion of controversial issues in the classroom environment, the teacher should have confidence, encouraging, democratic, controlled, tolerant and neutral attitudes. All of the prospective teachers stated that different techniques should be used in teaching controversial subjects. Teacher candidates with negative views in their personal approach to controversial issues; the fear of grouping and exclusion, the absence of a free environment and the inability to express themselves are among the reasons for these views. Teacher candidates have stated that discussing controversial issues can lead to disruption of class discipline, time management and communication problems, but these problems will be solved by rules, control, effective process management, experience, mutual respect and equal time determination.