Sokakta Çalışan ve Çalışmayan İlköğretim Öğrencilerinin Sosyal Bilgiler Programındaki Değerlere İlişkin Algıları / Perceptions of Primary School 5th Grade Students’ who are the Child Labour and who aren’t at the Street towards Values in Social Studies Curriculum

Problem: Values develop our personal integrity and provide a social unity. The majority of the society must comply with these values that determine how to behave to each other. But recent studies show that it is not the current case. In these days, values have degenerated, lost their meanings, and there have been rapid deteriorations in nations values systems. This issue makes values education necessary. The best time for values education is 1-5th grade, and the most appropriate course is Social Studies. In this course, students are expected to gain values of fairness, giving importance to family unity, independence, peace, being scientific, hardworking, solidarity, sensitivity, honesty, aesthetics, tolerance, hospitality, freedom, giving emphasis to be healthy, respect, love, responsibility, cleanliness, patriotism and helpfulness. When we have the chance of controlling the best time and most appropriate lesson for values education as educators, we can’t control environment factor and cultural stimulants from different backgrounds which are very important in values education. One of the environments that we can’t control is streets. Therefore, children who are the child labor at the streets may differ according to other children in terms of values acquisition. So, in this study, it is tried to determined perceptions of the students who are the child labor and who aren’t at the streets towards values predicted to give in Social Studies Curriculum. Method: This study which is conducted by qualitative research approach was carried out with 70 students consisting of 35 students who work on the streets and 35 students who do not work on the streets and studying in lower level socio-economic schools determined via extreme or deviant case sampling. The texts obtained from the case studies were analyzed by content analysis. Findings: According to results of this study, it was concluded that the students who are the child labor and who aren’t at the streets reported favorable opinions about values of fairness, peace, solidarity, sensibility, tolerance, paying attention to be healthy, respect, responsibility, cleanliness, and helpfulness. Moreover, it draws attention that the children who are the child labor emphasized values of being scientific, honesty, aesthetic, and love more frequently on the basis of related case studies. When the least emphasized values by the students who aren’t the child labor are cleanliness and being scientific; the least emphasized values by the students who are the child labor at the streets are aesthetic and being scientific. Suggestions: On the basis of the findings of this study, it can be suggested that teachers should put more emphasis on the values of cleanliness, being scientific and aesthetic in either social Studies courses or other courses. A similar study can be carried out with the adolescent students who are the child labor and who aren’t at the streets.