Attitudes of social study teachers to the education of contractual subjects

Social studies course is a citizenship education course fed by social sciences. From the past to the present, the citizenship education program of the states has been changing and shaped according to the century lived. The twenty-first century expects individuals to think critically and reflectively, to actively participate in social life, to express themselves freely, to use the steps of scientific thinking, and to offer solutions to social problems. All these skills and the targeted democratic and effective citizen type in countries where pluralist democracies are practiced are also targeted in our country. The current social studies curriculum includes students to discuss their problem situations in the classroom, to express themselves freely, and to evaluate the ideas put forward with scientific thinking methods. The democratic citizen type is the type of citizen who asks, questions and actively participates in his social environment. People who reflect on the problems of the society they live in are active citizens. Individuals should be acquainted with the problems of the society they live in, at an early age and at school. Only in this way can they prepare for real life. In order to prepare students for real life, it is necessary to bring them face to face with selected topics from the society and to present controversial topics by creating a democratic discussion atmosphere in the classroom. Quantitative research method was used in this study, in which the attitudes of social studies teacher candidates towards teaching controversial subjects were investigated. The data collection tool was determined as a questionnaire and the data were obtained through a questionnaire consisting of two parts. In the first part of the questionnaire, there are the variables of the participants, and in the second part, questions about the teaching of controversial issues. The universe of the study; It consists of 385 teacher candidates from all grade levels in the Department of Social Studies teaching at İnönü University, Dicle University and Muş Alparslan University. This study is a causal comparison study. Participants; They were asked to answer the variables of their gender, parental education level, the university they attended, their current class level, the economic stratum they belonged to and the place of residence they lived in. It was examined whether these variables caused differentiation in their attitudes towards teaching controversial subjects. The findings were processed and analyzed in the SPSS 26 program. When the attitudes of social studies teacher candidates towards teaching controversial topics are evaluated in the context of averages, it can be said that social studies teacher candidates' attitudes towards teaching controversial topics are high or in good condition. Keywords: Social studies, controversial issues.