PRE-SERVICE SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVES TOWARDS NETIZENSHIP

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, in technologically mediated discourses of citizenship, new kinds of political, social, economic and cultural forms of belonging are discussed. This study tried to formed a general frame for netizenship and civic virtues in views of pre-service social studies teachers because, social studies teachers are expected to be both model citizens and netizens and they must endeavor to guide their students to demonstrate civic competencies when using technology. Thus, in this study how technology effected pre-service social studies teachers’ civic virtues is discussed and their opinions about netizenship are found out. In this qualitative study at hand, research group was formed of ninety pre-service social studies teachers who were enrolled in a state university in Turkey. The selection of pre-service teachers was based on purposeful sampling with no gender-specific selection. A data collection tool was developed based on qualitative means which included open-ended questions regarding the pre-service social studies teachers’ views about netizenship. The data gathered in this study were analysed through content analyse technique. In conclusion, it was found that pre-service social studies teachers’ views about netizenship were focused on technological common-wealth as fundamental to the exercise of policy, identity and the actualisation of humanity.