Teachers' opinions on whether controversial issues are included in curriculum of elementary schools (The example of Malatya)

In this study, it was aimed whether controversial issues take place in curriculum and opinions of form teachers on teaching these topics, and to analyze the opinions in terms of definition of controversial issues, teaching methods and techniques, evaluation of teaching, positive and negative outcomes of teaching these subjects in class, difficulties in teaching these subjects. The model which is chosen for the study is "a case study". Of all improbable sampling methods, Inconvenience sampling was used in choosing study group. Study universe consisted of 20 teachers who work in 13 different schools from different districts of Malatya - Battalgazi, Yeşilyurt, Doğanşehir, Kale, Arguvan, Darende ve Akçadağ. To gather data, questions from semi-structured interview were used. There were 12 questions to reveal teachers' opinions related to nature of controversial issues and teaching these topics in semi-structured interview form. Data gathered through interviews were analysed by transferring NVivo 10 qualitative data analysis software. Before data analysis, each interview was revised completely to grasp opinion of participants. Then, words and phrases in interviews were assigned unit of data analysis and coding was carried out. While coding, words used by participants were occasionally quoted, words that are thought to be expressed better were occasionally used by researcher. Afterwards, themes based on codes were created and gathered data were analyzed. Descriptive analysis and continuous comparative data analysis were used in the study. In conclusion of the study, it has been revealed that topics having the highest disputability level are the system of education, ethnical problems, system of exam, backer, education in mother tongue, coup and enflation whereas topics having the lowest disputability level are cyprus issue, theory of evolution, scarf, fanaticism and adoption according to attending teachers. Controversial issues mentioned and suggested to be included in curriculum by attending teachers are pollution, animal rights, cultural degeneration, water shortage, terrorism, violance, education in mother tongue, and drug addiction. In addition, discussing controversial issues in the class reveals developing some positive outcomes such as developing empathy and problem-solving skills, respecting different thoughts, gaining awareness while causing some negative outcomes such as damaging bond of friendship, causing behavioral disorders, getting reactions, causing conflicts. Topics conveyed most by teachers are coup, pollution, violance, animal rights, and water shortage; while topics conveyed by students are violance, coup, animal rights, unemployment, fanaticism, pollution, terrorism, drug addiction, and topics from internet and TV broadcasts. Attending teachers use discussion method and brainstorm to teach controversial issues, they use observation, case study texts and writing students' ideas while evaluation phase. Amongst difficulties while teaching controversial issues, insufficient readiness level, parent reaction, misunderstanding and busy schedule are the most referred difficulties. It is stated that 75% of attending teachers do not find their colleagues sufficient while teaching controversial issues according to qualitative data analysis of teacher proficiency.