Okul Öncesi Öğretmenlerinin Çocuk Haklarına İlişkin Tutum, Davranış Ve Görüşlerinin İncelenmesi

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate preschool teachers’ attitude towards rights of children and their views and behaviors on applying rights of children on their activities in class. Mixed research method and the sequential transformative design were used in this research. 205 preschool teachers for quantitative study and 10 preschool teachers for qualitative study were voluntarily included by using convenient sampling method. To determine preschool teachers’ attitude towards rights of children Attitude Scale for Children’s Rights, which was developed by Karaman- Kepenekçi (2006) wass used. An interview form and an observation form, which were developed by the researcher, were used to investigate preschool teachers’ views and behaviors on applying rights of children on their activities. According to results of this study, preschool teachers’ attitude towards children’s rights was high. The results show that the age of participants, whether they have children, the school types they work, their occupational experience, the number of children at their classroom and whether they get any education about rights of children do not have any effect on their attitudes toward rights of children. However, their graduation level had an effect. Moreover, it was obtained that their attitudes toward rights of children and their level of loving of children had a significant, positive and low relationship. The data obtained from interviews and observation shows that participants’ views and behaviors were not sufficient in terms of applying rights of children in their activities. It was found that they did not take children’s opinions about which activities could be applied and give feedbacks about their progress. Moreover, they did not give information about activities and evaluate the activities enough. Although they cared about participation of children and their opinions about participation, they did not offer any alternative activity to children who did not want to participate. It was found that teachers tried to guide them as children had difficulty on activities. In both attitude scale and interviews, it was obtained that teachers gave importance to right of play. However, they did not represent this importance in their behaviors. They did not allocate enough time for playing to children and playing was generally seen as a present for good behaviors. According to obtained data from scale and interviews, teachers love children. However, it was found that teachers threatened, compared and made judgement when they faced with misbehaviors. In scale, interviews and behaviors, it was seen that right of protection was important for participants. Finally, it was explored that participants did not offer enough opportunities for sharing atmosphere for children.