Abstract:

One of the issues that takes place in the agenda of current century is, beyond question, the problem of human rights. One of the fundamental rights of a person is the right to know his/her own rights. Being aware of rights, wishing to use and protect them, and considering why they should be protected can only be come true by means of education. For that reason, education has a crucial role in teaching human rights as necessary. One of the general aims of Turkish National Education System is to bring up citizens who are aware of their duties and responsibilities towards human rights and take them as behaviors. Raising students as individuals aware of their rights will make the base for shaping of the good citizens of the future. A systematical instruction should be applied in schools. Social studies in primary education is a lesson in which children’s rights education can be implemented in a planned way. It is an expected ideal that students as citizens of The Republic of Turkey should be grown up like citizens who love their country and people, know about their rights and use them, fulfill their responsibilities and have a national consciousness. For that reason, to find out the perceptions of primary school students on their rights is very important. In this point, the aim of the researcher is to determine how primary school students perceive children rights and how they use these rights in their immediate surroundings. This research is implemented to the sixth and seventh grade students studying at 3 different primary schools in Ankara in 2011-2012 academic year. Since limited number of schools participated in the study, any generalizations about the results of the study will not be made. Choosing the schools, the appropriate/suitable sample method was employed. 120 sixth and seventh grade students from 3 different schools participated in the study. 10 open-ended questions were asked to students in order to determine their perceptions on their rights under cover of Convention on the Rights of the Child. Moreover, students were asked to complete this sentence: “Children have a right to.................. ” and to prepare a poster showing this right. A rubric was used to evaluate posters. Qualitative research method was used in this study and descriptive scanning model was adopted. The data derived from study was analyzed using document analyses and descriptive analyses. Reviewing the results of the study in general, it was seen that the perceptions of students on children’s rights focused on the freedom of living, expressing ideas, education, game and entertainment. It was found out that students considered children’ rights within the framework of human rights so they had the idea that if humans have right, children must have rights, too. It was also seen that students were able to use their rights in family atmosphere most and they had limited opportunity of using their rights among friends and in school atmosphere. Furthermore, students stated that they had a right to be grown up, looked after, and loved in family. They requested some rights about game, entertainment, education and rise in family income from the government. Students said that every child had a right to entertain, play game, get education, be free, be protected and be dirty and they stated specifically that their families took away their right of entertainment and game According to the results of the study, it can be said that students are sensitive about the rights intended for games and entertainment but they do not have enough information about protection, education, freedom, thought, living etc. that are included in UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. As a result, children should first be aware of their rights in order to use them. Accordingly, human rights education must be handled meticulously, children should be informed about their rights with activities prepared by taking account of their age groups. Besides families should be included in the process with family participation activities and they should be informed about that children have some rights and that games and entertainment are of children’s fundamental needs.

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