Knowledge, skills and attitudes of social studies teachers regarding the concept of multiculturalism

The concept of multiculturalism, which we encounter in the painful process of transformations experienced as a requirement of modern times and globalization, becomes a phenomenon that should be included in the education system in our country as well as all over the world. The social studies course, which aims to raise active citizens within the curriculum, has become the most important tool of multicultural education from the point of necessity and purpose. There have been various social, political, and academic fears about multicultural education. In particular, since there are problems that can be experienced in case the concept is not adequately understood and applied, multicultural education becomes more of an issue. The study aims to examine the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of the social studies teachers, who are the practitioners of the social studies course, regarding the concept of multiculturalism. While the population is chosen from the social studies teachers working in Şanlıurfa in this study, the sample was selected from 300 social studies teachers working in this city using the purposive sampling method. The model multicultural education scale is applied is the survey model, one of the quantitative research methods. Due to the fact that the research process coincided with the pandemic period, the scales were applied over the internet. This situation can be considered the most important limitation of the study. According to the result of the study, since the averages of the scales are in the range of 3.40-4.19, it can be said that the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of the participants regarding the concept of multicultural education and multiculturalism are at a high level. Despite this situation, it can be suggested that increasing the knowledge level of teachers about multicultural education may be beneficial in university education.