Examination of the political literacy levels of social science teachers

This study was conducted to determine the political literacy levels of social studies teachers. The survey model, which is one of the quantitative research methods, was used in the research. In line with the research, the "Political Literacy Scale" consisting of five factors and 24 items, namely political expertise, political knowledge, political awareness, political interest and political participation, was used to obtain data on the political literacy of the participants. The population of the research consists of 548 social studies teachers working in public and private schools in Sakarya in the 2021-2022 academic year. The sample consists of a total of 190 social studies teachers, 15 of whom are working in private schools, 66 (34.7%) women and 124 (65.3%) men. The data collected in the research were analyzed with the SPSS.25 package program. It was decided by examining the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test results and the kurtosis and skewness coefficient values whether the factors in the Political Literacy Scale and the data in the scale showed normal distribution. Nonparametric tests were used because the data did not show normal distribution. The Mann-Whitney U test was used in the analysis of the data belonging to the variables of gender, education status and the type of institution employed, which are two unrelated groups, and the Kruskal-Wallis H test was used in the analysis of the data belonging to the variables of service time, age and social media use status, which are more than two unrelated groups. The political literacy levels of the teachers were analyzed according to both the general scale and the sub-factors of "political participation", "political interest", "political knowledge", "political awareness" and "political expertise" and examined according to various variables. According to the results of the analysis, it was determined that the political literacy levels of social studies teachers were very high with 4.33 points on the basis of the general scale. On the other hand, it was concluded that the "political interest" sub-factor average scores were high at 4.11, and the "political participation" average scores at 3,93. When the political literacy levels of the participating teachers were examined according to the gender variable, it was found that the average scores of both male teachers and female teachers on the general scale were close to each other and at a very high level, but there was a significant difference in favor of male teachers in the "political expertise" and "political interest" factors. When the average scores of the teachers were examined on the basis of the educational status variable, it was determined that the average scores of the teachers who received undergraduate and graduate education were very close to each other and at a very high level, but a significant difference was found in the "political expertise" sub-factor in favor of the teachers who received graduate education. When the political literacy of the teachers is examined according to the variable of the type of institution, it is seen that the average scores and levels of the social studies teachers working in public institutions are higher than the teachers working in private institutions. When the political literacy of the teachers was examined in terms of the variable of length of service, it was found that the political literacy average scores and levels of the teachers who have just started their profession with 1-5 years of seniority are lower than their other colleagues. Similarly, when the political literacy of the teachers was examined in terms of the age variable, it was determined that the political literacy average scores and levels of the social studies teachers aged 30 and below were lower than their other colleagues. Finally, when the political literacy of the teachers is analyzed according to the variable of using social media, it is concluded that the political literacy of the teachers who do not use social media, partially use and actively use social media corresponds to a very high level, but the average scores of the teachers who do not use social media are higher than their other colleagues.