The Effect of Social Studies Lessons on Citizenship Perceptions of 7th Grade Syrian Immigrant Students

Providing people to acquire some skills and concepts, social studies lessons interact with various branches of science. One of them is citizenship education. When citizenship education is examined, it is seen that effective citizenship education comes to the forefront in present democracies. Concepts and issues such as respect for differences, empathy, globalization, cooperation, solidarity, identity, unity, and the feeling of togetherness are important considering immigrant students' acquiring citizenship awareness via intercultural interaction. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of social studies lessons on citizenship perceptions of 7th grade Syrian immigrant students. For this purpose, opinions of 14 Syrian immigrant students, who attended 7th grade in three different secondary schools in Hatay in 2019, were asked. The research was designed in qualitative design and phenomenology model. Purposive sampling method was used to determine Syrian immigrant students participating in the research. A semi-structured student interview form was used to collect data. It was found that, immigrant students in the study group of the research know their rights and responsibilities, respect the rights of others, feel responsible and have patriotism. They stated that citizenship education they received in social studies lessons contributed greatly to their acquisition of these values. Considering these findings, it was concluded that social studies lesson has an important effect on the formation of citizenship perceptions of Syrian immigrant students; enabling them to be connected with the environment they live in with a sense of belonging, while enabling them to become more sensitive and responsible citizens towards their environment.