An Investigation of Social Studies Teachers' Attitudes and Opinions Towards Traditional Sports

Abstract

Turkish sports culture, which dates back to approximately 5000 years ago, has gone through different phases from past to present. Although it is not possible to evaluate modern sports as a continuation of traditional sports, it can be said that the historical background for sports culture is formed by traditional sports. One of the courses that deals with traditional sports in terms of different variables is the social studies course. The mission of the social studies course to raise awareness of the individual about the cultural foundations of the society in which he/she lives, and in this context, the content related to sports culture and traditional sports has been one of the motivations for the emergence of this study. In this study, which was conducted in accordance with the mixed method methodology, it was tried to determine the attitudes of social studies teachers towards sports and sports culture, and the data collection process was carried out with a scale of attitudes towards traditional sports and a semi-structured interview form. A total of 120 teachers were included in the quantitative data collection process and 10 teachers were included in the qualitative data collection process. In line with the findings obtained, it was determined that the attitudes of social studies teachers towards traditional sports were at a moderate level according to the attitude scale, and a significant part of the participants thought that traditional sports would contribute to the physical development of the individual. In line with the results obtained, suggestions were made regarding the development of sports culture and the implementation of awareness-raising dissemination activities to be carried out with students and teachers in this direction.