Kudret AYKIRI Pamukkale University
[email protected] Abstract
The aim of the study is to investigate the opinions of preservice teachers in social studies department related to the community service practices course project called "social cinema" whose target group is students in village primary and secondary schools. In accordance with this purpose, the study was designed with case study method, which is one of the qualitative research methods. The sample of the study consisted of 8 preservice teachers studying their third year at Social Studies Education Department in the Faculty of Education of a state university during the academic year 2017-2018. Sampling of the study was performed according to criterion sampling, a type of purposeful sampling. The data of the study was gathered through semi-structured interview and photographs. The data was analysed with descriptive analysis method. At the end of the study, it was found out that the reasons for choosing this project, contribution of the project to preservice teachers, the problems they encountered in the project and the solutions they found, suggestions for the persons who will carry out similar projects.
Key words: Social Project, Community Service Practices, Equality of Opportunity in Education Preservice teachers in Social Studies Department
1. Introduction
Awareness towards global problems is much lower than the desired level. In order to raise awareness to these global issues, probably the most effective way is to raise conscious people, and so universities, nongovernmental organizations and political corporations should carry out projects that are realistic and applicable (Aydın, 2016, preface). On the university basis, these projects are conducted through scientific studies, or based on voluntariness, or within the framework of courses. The project "Social Cinema" conducted by preservice teachers who are in a department of social studies at a state university, is project that starts with volunteering and integrated into community service practices course. This project, which is based on school-based, well-known activities, is concerned with the relationship between social studies preservice teachers and community service practices course and it is discussed contributions of project.
1.1. The Aim of the Study
The aim of the study is to investigate the opinions of preservice teachers in social studies department related to the community service practices course project called "social cinema" whose target group is students in village primary and secondary schools.
1.2. The Importance of the Study
It is believed that the result of the study is of critical importance as it enlightens issues such as the activities, the problems experienced and the solutions related to these problems for preservice teachers who will carry out a project aimed at students in village primary and secondary schools in community service practices course. It is possible to obtain information on many activities carried out in schools. However, there was no scientific study of these activities.
1.3. Sub-goals
• What are the reasons of the preservice teachers in social studies department to choose the project called "social cinema"?
• What kind of activities did the preservice teachers in social studies do within the frame of the " social cinema"?" project?
• What kind of problems did the preservice teachers in social studies experience and how did they solve these problems?
• What are the contributions of the " social cinema"?" project to the preservice teachers in social studies?
• What are the suggestions of the preservice teachers in social studies for those who will carry out similar projects to " social cinema"??
• Is there a relationship between our social cinema project and community service practices course according to the opinions of preservice teachers in social studies?
2. Method
2.1. Design of the Study
The study was designed with case study method, which is one of the qualitative research methods. According to
The thing that is to be studied should be a limited system such as only one person, program, group, organization etc. This study focused on a school, a group of 8 preservice teachers voluntarily servicing there and their experiences related to this school. As Creswell stated (2016) in case study method, detailed information is gathered with multiple information sources and the case analysis is conducted. In this study, thanks to experiences of the preservice teachers related to the activities that they conducted with students in primary and secondary, the data was gathered through multiple information sources- semi structured interview, documents and reports- and then analysed.
2.2. Sample of the Study
The sample of the study consisted of preservice teachers studying their third year at Social Studies Education Department in the Faculty of Education of a state university in Republic of Turkey during the academic year 2017-2018. Some activities were performed during 10 weeks by the preservice teachers in a state-funded secondary school in the city center where the university is located. In the study, the opinions of totally 8 preservice teachers were received on these activities. Sampling of the study was performed according to criterion sampling, a type of purposeful sampling. Yıldırım and Şimşek (2013) suggested that purposeful sampling enables in dept analysis of the cases that are considered to have rich information. In the criterion sampling, a type of purposeful sampling, the criterion used was "participating in the project voluntarily and participating within the course". Since the size of the sample is just a case considering the focus group of the study, working with a group of 8 was considered to be satisfactory. Moreover, when weekly reports and studies were analysed, it was seen that notions and processes started to repeat and data saturation was observed with one group.
2.3. Roles of Researcher
The researcher in this study don't have the role of participant, he watched the process, conducted the focus group discussion and analysed the related documents and reports. The researcher has been following social project and community service practices courses closely for about 5 years and has certificates of appreciation within the context of community service practices and carry out studies on social projects.
2.4. Data Collection Tools
The data of the study was gathered through document analysis (photographs) and semi-structured interview.
Semi-structured interviews were performed in social studies seminar room. The room had a u-shaped table as well as adjustable and comfortable chairs. For the interview, 7 questions that are suitable for a conversational atmosphere and daily language use were prepared. Depth interview was tried to be performed with 8 probes emerged during the interview. In the preparation process of the questions, the literature was reviewed and right after forming first draft of the items, opinion of an expert in the field was referred to. The piloting of the questions was conducted with some preservice teachers formerly accomplishing projects in the community service practices course. The interview was fulfilled by the researchers. It took four hour. In addition, photos taken during the action phase have been examined
2.5. Analysis of Data
The data obtained from interview was analysed with descriptive analysis method. In this method, the data gathered is summarised and interpreted according to the pre-determined themes. The data can be arranged considering the themes on which the research questions center (Yıldırım and Şimşek, 2013). In this study, the data was also designed according to the themes on which interview questions focused. The analysis of the data was conducted in the following process:
• For descriptive analysis, the frame was designed according to interview questions. The themes that were dealt with were the reasons to choose the project, the contribution of the project, problems encountered in the project, recommendations for the project, the project and course relationship and the opinions of other stakeholders.
• Right after determining the thematic frame, the next step was processing the data. The interview was transferred to computer medium without making any changes and 32 pages of data was gathered. The data was shown to the participants and they were informed that they would remain anonymous and the data would be used for scientific reasons. The coding was conducted first and then themes were put into the final form.
The main themes were determined with agreement-disagreement method.
• In the following step, the findings were started to be described. Under each theme, direct quotations were presented.
• Finally, the findings were interpreted so as to reveal cause effect relationships.
2.6. Credibility, Transferability and Consistency
In the study, regarding the credibility, depth oriented data was tried to be collected, expert opinion was referred to, participant confirmation was achieved. In order to collect depth oriented data, probes were included during the interviews. While preparing the questions for interview, expert opinions were obtained from field experts and Turkish education experts. After the whole study was finished, it was examined by the experts in the field. After the interviews, the participants were provided with the last version of the study and asked if there were any parts to be corrected or clarified to maintain member checking. Member checking was carried out through a specific meeting for this purpose. Member checking meeting was photographed with the consent of the participants. This evidence will be kept in archives for a while.
Within the scope of transferability in the study detailed description was performed and purposeful sampling was used. After the data obtained from interview was described comprehensively, direct quotations were often given place to. For purposeful sampling, criterion sampling was used.
In order to maintain consistency in the research, during the coding process of the data gathered from the interviews, consistency in conceptualisation was taken into consideration.
As for the confirmability in the study, the coding and results of the study were examined by the expert in the field.
2.7. Ethical Issues
The participants of the study participated in social cinema projects voluntarily. Their consent was taken to conduct interviews. After the study was finished, the results that they had been waiting for excitedly were checked and then confirmed by them again. Symbolic codes were used in the quotations. Data gathered from interviews will be kept in archives for a while.
3. Findings
3.1. The Name and Content of the Project
The social cinema project has started on voluntary basis in the second class (TT4 “This project is a project entirely on a voluntary basis”) and then integrated into community service practices in the third class. The project name is given by the teacher trainee (TT2) who is the initiator of the project. It is seen that he/she gave this name because he/she has wanted to attribute to the social sciences teaching department and also he/she has thought that the most deprived activity in the project is cinema (TT2 “This name emphasizes on the cinema activity, one of the most important activities, as well as attributes to the social studies teaching department. The reason of the importance of cinema activity is that other activities can be reached everywhere, but there are certain places for cinema”).
Although there are some group members who found the name suitable, there are also some members who think that ‘social’ term is suitable but ‘cinema’ term should be changed because the project covers many activities, not only cinema. What are these various activities: (a) wearing theater costumes and clown clothes, make-up and then many children games aiming at warming towards each other (dropping the handkerchief, skipping rope), playing games that are played with ball (volleyball), and dancing with music. (b) Revised Snow White and Seven Dwarfs Show. (c) Aşuk and Maşuk show. (d) hand, face painting and handprint, (e) various catering (fruit juice, cake, candy, chocolate, etc.), (f) constituting a box office, giving tickets, popcorn and beverages and getting them to watch an animation film, (g) organizing traditional competitions with book reward (gunnysack race, tug of war) and finally, having a souvenir photo taken with all students and group members.
3.2. The reasons for carrying out the project
So why did they volunteer for such a project and they continued the project in the second year? It seems that the main reason of the teacher trainees for carrying out this project is to eliminate the inequality of opportunity to some extent (TT2: “the difference between the children live in rural areas and urban areas”) that they have observed and experienced (“We have seen, known and experienced (TT8)”) before.
Although the preparation of the project is a long time period, the stage of action lasts for one day. Here the question of how much equal opportunity can be achieved comes to mind. Teacher trainees are aware that their activity is short and limited (TT3 “Even if it was only a day”). However, it is believed in the affect that will create and it is seen as a secondary goal to enable the target group to achieve cognitive and affective gains with magic touches (TT8 “We want to show a different world, to arouse curiosity, to contribute to their future dreams and visions”).
The purpose of teacher trainees was not a romantic “TT8: romantic” attempt with their own statements. The activities they did were not “a favour, a donation, etc. (TT8)”. It is perceived they were right-based. Although they have emphasized on the gain of "smile" in their purposes, it seems that they have had profound and prospective aims and they have not had an aim like “Everybody laughed, was happy and it was over” (TT8).
Another aim of teacher trainees is to experience teaching experience. It is already seen as an important experience for teacher trainees "to be together with the students, understand their desires, needs, feelings and thoughts" (TT6).
In the teacher trainees expressions, it was also seen their having the value of altruism as a trigger factor (TT7 “We were volunteer to do this, it was not a content of a lesson, we carried out this project because we really wanted to reach these students and make them happy”).
Teacher trainees can always serve as a volunteer for specific purposes. But the answer to the question why the similar service is done next year comes to an important condition. The answer is the feedback from the target group (TT5 “to have a smile on children's face”). It is seen that the feedback reinforces the teaching love that exists in the teacher trainees and that it provides the continuation of the project. It is also seen that the sensitiveness value that can be considered as one of the project gains is important in the continuation of the project (TT2 “when the school where the activities done and the situation of the children at this school are seen, the students at the other schools are thought and they are asked to do something for them).
3.3. The outcomes of the project
Values and skills contributed by the project are:
Teacher trainees express that they develop empathy when they prepare the activities (TT 3 “when we decided to carry out this project, we decided the activities by putting ourselves in their place”).
Teacher trainees state that while they were planning the activities, their creative thinking skills developed (TT1
“we tried to find creative activities in order to offer better and more enjoyable time. This situation has contributed to our creative thinking skills”).
Since the teacher candidates must make effective presentations when they are looking for sponsors and also the students they will talk to are talking with the dialects belonging to the local people, they must express an effective speech. It is stated that this situation has made contribution to use the Turkish language skill well and correctly.
“Cooperation” is the value that two teacher trainees (TT2 and TT 8), one of them being project manager, regards as the most important contribution (TT2 “The most important contribution of this project is cooperation. Because you want to do something and you have a very nice project idea. However, this alone is not enough. You cannot suffice to everything…). It also seems to have contributed to the intra-group communication and collaboration skills related to the cooperation (TT1 “We carried out this project with a group. For this reason, our intra-group communication skills and cooperation skills).
Teacher trainees seem to provide emotional satisfaction (TT7 “First and most importantly, I felt good because I made those children happy”).
During the project preparation phase and the project action phase, it is seen that the teacher trainess encounter many problems and find solutions to these problems (TT1 “Both before and during the project, they had to find immediate, fast and effective solutions to the problems that occurred during the project. When we look at it from this side, it has made positive contributions to our problem-solving skills”).
3.4. Encountered problems and the solutions to these problems The problems encountered during the project are:
Teacher trainees have indicated that the budget is the most important problem (TT 5 “The biggest problem was the fund problem”). It is seen that they solve the budget problem by holding a kermes in the universities they are affiliated with and separating the settlement of Denizli city center by regions and looking for sponsors in groups (TT3 “we found a solution by separating the fund into groups and making sponsor negotiations”).
Finding the costumes, which is related to the budget but is a more specific issue, draws attention as another problem. It is understood that this problem is solved by asking for the groups in the university, renting from the shops and creative touches to individual costumes (TT5 “it was difficult to find a costume for the activity. We also collaborated with other groups, rented them, and solved them with our own costumes).
The action phase of the project takes a full day, but the preparation phase involves a long period of time. For this reason, the time problem emerges as another important problem (TT5: “Those who have decided to do the project are beginning to realize that this project is a tiring and a long process). This problem seems to be due to the fact that the project is not structured, namely not well planned (TT 5 “they should dot the i’s and cross the t’s”). It appears that self-devotion has been made as a solution (TT7 “sometimes we had time to go home late, we could not sleep”).
During the project preparation phase, there was a problem of finding an activity that is linked to the time problem (TT5 “it was a problem that the project would not include what activities were involved in the project at the planning stage”). It can be thought this situation is originated from that these teacher trainees have started the project in the second grade and they have not taken any lessons to design educational activities. For this reason, it is seen that the activities are very well known events (theater and cinema, competitions). They stated that they used voting and consensus techniques when setting events (TT3 “We decided that activities by stating our own opinions, voting these opinions and then we chose the activities best rated”).
School directors and even teachers' apathy to the project was seen as a major problem (TT8 “The second major problem was the lack of interest and communication of school directors. Besides, the teachers were indifferent,
too. They only preferred watching). This problem seems to have been partially solved by individual efforts (TT2
“doing everything by yourself and not expecting everything from the school management are the things wanted”).
The impossibility of the school was expressed as another problem (TT1 “we have problems arising from the impossibility of the school”). They seem to have solved these impossibilities by individual efforts (TT1 “we took for the missing things such as projector, sound system, etc. by providing from our university”).
Decision of the school where the project will be carried out is expressed as one of the important problems. It has been tried to find a school that was in need (TT5: “Choosing a school was one of the biggest problems. Because determining which school really needs this project was a big problem”). It has been seen that this problem has been solved by talking to the municipality. As the second problem related to school determination, we confront with the bureaucracy (TT1 “It was one of the important problems to get official permissions and solve the problems”). This problem seems to have been solved by planning as an activity of the project student group and taking the permission through this group (TT3 “We found a solution by showing official things under the club name”).
It was stated that the transportation problem was also experienced and this problem was solved through the municipality (TT5 “We had the transportation problem but the municipality solved it”).
When the suggestions part is taken into consideration, there is a problem that there must be some values for group work. It is emphasized that mutual respect value is important (TT2 “They must respect each other and care about each idea”).
When the suggestions part is taken into consideration, it is seen that project introduction is a problem (TT8: “and most importantly they should promote the project for its future”). They also emphasized the need to promote with social media (TT3 “Social project activity should be promoted on the social media”). At the same time, it was emphasized that “the photos of the events should be combined for the interview with the authorities in the school”
(TT3) and the brochures should be prepared.
In sum, it is seen that the teacher trainees faced with many problems and found solutions to them. In this process, the importance of "patience" value was understood from the expressions (TT4 “They must first be patient, they should not give up because of the first problem they have and they should go ovr the problem”). It was stated that they will receive the reward of being patient with the feedback from the target group (TT6 “The smiles of the students take away all the tiredness”, TT4 “They should put all of them in the background when they think children’
happiness”).
3.5. The Relevance of Community Service Practices Course
Teacher trainees stated that if the social cinema project is taken within the scope of the course, it will be carried out for being “compulsory” and “taking notes”, so it should be based on “volunteerism” ( TT 5 “To me, making such a good project under a course to take note reduces the value of the project. Such volunteerism and willingness increase this project’s value”).
Teacher trainees who stated that they are related to the community service practices, established this relationship because they saw children as a part of the society (TT1 “Social cinema is a project of community service practices course. Because it appeals to a target audience within the society”). Nevertheless, they make feel from the continuation of this expression that it should be based voluntary.
It is also non-negligible that there is a facilitative function of the course in formal procedures (TT3: “Only for the formal procedures, it should be shown in the scope of the course”).
When talking about volunteering, it is seen that the value of altruism is emphasized (TT5 “It must be done voluntarily without waiting for nothing”).
In sum, the social cinema project has been linked to the fact that it is based on volunteerism, emphasizing the value of altruism, if it is in the scope of the course, it will be considered as compulsory and taking notes, serving only children who are in a part of society.
4. Result And Discussion
The social cinema name is based on the attribution to the identity and the most valuable activity in the project. The project is not just about cinema activity, but about eight separate events.
The real purpose of this project is to provide equality of opportunity, at least partially as a right. The initiating factors of the project are teaching love and altruism value. The factors that enable the project to continue are the feedbacks from the target group and the sensitiveness value it generates.
It is seen that the project has made contribution to the teacher trainees’ developing empathy, creative thinking, speaking Turkish language well and correctly, problem solving, communication and cooperation skills, the values of cooperation and sensitiveness and also it is seen to make students have an emotional pleasure.
When we look at the purposes of community service practices course, it seems that the teacher candidate should gain the benefits such as improving the sensitivity to social problems, defining the society, and tasting the pleasure of serving the community (Kamer, 2009). It is also parallel to the findings of other studies (Çetin ve Sönmez, 2009;
Tanrıseven, Üredi, ve Yanpar Yelken 2010; Yılmaz, 2011) in which the community service practices is useful to teacher trainees
Teacher trainees have emphasized that the project should remain voluntary based by linking to the value of altruism. It is known that there is altruism value (Furco, 1996, s.4) in the nature of volunteerism in their participation in activities in which they focus on the services they are supposed to benefit and the benefits of the service recipients.
In the light of these findings, it is suggested to study the contribution of the project for the teacher trainees in detail and specially, and also it is suggested that those who want to gain these contributions by carrying out this project should examine the experiences of the people in this study well.
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