The Opinions of Prospective Teachers on Using Folk Songs in Social Studies Teaching

Abstract

The social studies course is one of the most appropriate courses for individuals to acquire social and cultural experiences and to have knowledge and experience in these subjects. The social studies course contains a lot of knowledge, skills, and values to enable the individual to know himself and gain a social identity. It is seen how a society expresses its feelings and emotions at different times, on sad or happy days through folk songs, which have an essential place among the literary products used in the course. This study, which aimed to determine the opinions of the prospective social studies teachers regarding the use of folk songs in social studies courses, was carried out with 16 prospective social studies teachers. In this study, a semi-structured interview form was used to collect data. Explanatory and inferential codes that emerged during the analysis were used to explain the qualitative data and relationships. In line with the data obtained, prospective teachers stated that they found the use of folk song-supported teaching activities in social studies teaching useful in ensuring permanence, drawing students' attention, and being fun. They also expressed that it has benefits such as giving an idea about our national culture, presenting values to students, increasing intelligibility, ensuring that traditions and customs are conveyed from generation to generation, and providing students with different perspectives.