Evaluation of Social Studies Teachers’ Usage Situation of Literary Works in Their Courses: Bartın Sample

Abstract

Literature can be defined as a branch of art by which people express their emotions, thoughts, imaginations and ideals verbally or in written through language. It is one of the many fields utilized by social studies courses that inherently involve several social disciplines. Several different type of literary works have been used as teaching materials in social studies teaching. These primarily involve novels, stories, memoirs, biographies, travel writings, sagas, epics, articles, proverbs, songs, idioms, legends, poems, tales and theater plays. The aim of this study is to determine the extent to which social studies teachers use literary works in their courses. Phenomenology among qualitative methodologies was used during the research. The study group consists of 32 social studies teachers working in Bartın province as of 2015-2016 academic year. Structured interview was used as the data gathering tool. The data obtained within the frame of the study were analyzed using content analysis. As a result of the research, the majority of participating teachers were found to be inclined to use literary works in their courses, although they find the use of literary works in curricula and course books qualitatively and quantitatively inadequate.