Abstract:

Purpose of study consists of revealing effect of drama practice competencies on democratic attitudes of teachers who are employed in preschool education institutions. In this research, both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used. Participants for quantitative dimension consist of 146 randomly selected teachers among preschool teachers who are working in preschool education institutions of central districts, Konya Provincial Directorate for National Education. Participants for qualitative dimension consist of 5 preschool teachers who were selected according to purposeful sampling approach. In the current study, Teaching Profession Attitude Scale (TPAS), the sub-dimension of democratic attitude used to determine democratic attitudes of teachers and “Teacher as a Drama Leader and Educational Drama Practice Adequacy Scale” to evaluate drama practice competencies. Also, semistructured open-ended interview forms were used to determine the democratic behaviors during teachers' drama activities. In the analysis of data obtained in qualitative data, content analysis was conducted. In the analysis of data obtained in quantitative study, the SPSS 15 program was used. Simple linear regression analysis was used to reveal effect of dependent variable on independent variable, and descriptive statistics relating to variables were included. It was concluded that drama practice adequacy was a significant explanatory of democratic attitude. Besides, the results pointed out that teachers express opinion that they behave democratically during drama activities.

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