Abstract:

Abstract enThe purpose of thisstudy is tocompare the human rightsand democracy education courses offered with in the context of social studies teacher education programs provided in Turkey and certain European Union countries with respect to their semester, credit, content, and achievement criteria. The data related to the secriteria were obtained from the following data bases: Agencies of the European Union, European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education, Eurydice- Network on Education Systems and Policies in Europe, and Eurybase-Descriptions of National Systems and Policies. A descriptive survey method was used to determine the current status of human rightsand democracy education courses given in Turkey and in some other European countries. The results demonstrated that there were some differences in the human rightsand democracy education courses with respect to their given semester and credits; however, the differences were not remarkable. In every academic year there are compulsory human rightsand democracy education ncourses in Austria, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Ireland, Luxembourg, Greece, Denmark, and Sweden. When total number of human right sand democracy education courses were examined, it was seen that Sweden and Luxembourg have ten compulsory courses and Greece has nine compulsory courses. The examination of ECTS credits of courses with respect to academic year and country showed that Sweden has 90 ECTS of human rights and democracy education courses and the courses are given in each semester of teacher education program. The contents of the human rightsand democracy education courses in European Union countries are consisted of cultural differences, universal rights, social inclusion, justice and equality, and equality of opportunity. However, in Turkey, the content of the courses are consisted of political, legal, social and economic arrangements, politics, and social order

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