Abstract

This study aims to comparatively examine the values that the students of the Department of Social Studies in Education Faculty at two universities located in the Eastern and Western parts of Turkey desire to find in people they interact with. Multiple methods, including quantitative and qualitative methods, were used in this study. The research was first shaped through content analysis method based on the qualitative research model and then through relational and statistical analysis based on the quantitative research model. The participants of this study were 84 students in total, 47 students from Marmara University in Istanbul from Western Anatolia and 37 students from Kafkas University in Kars from Eastern Anatolia. 48 of the students were female and 36 were male. The data were collected via questionnaires given to senior students at both universities. The qualitative data were analyzed through content analysis while the quantitative data were analyzed by Pearson Chi-Square, Yatest Chi-Square (Continuity Correction) and Fisher's Exact Test techniques. The statistical significance level was taken as P <0.05. The findings obtained from this research can be summarized as follows: students who participated in the study desire to find the values of effective communication, peace, honesty, maturity, sharing, unity, intellectuality, intelligence, personal care, culture and Atatürkism in the people they interact with. The pre-service social studies teachers are in compliance with the values included in the curriculum of the Department of Social Studies to a great extent. The findings of the present research have some similarities and differences compared to the studies of Spranger, Rokeach, and Schwartz. They desire to find values different in gender; there are some similarities and differences between the values found by the research findings and the values included in the curriculum. Almost all female students and majority of male students initially look for the value of Effective Communication in people they interact with and the value of Unity is not important for the students at either of the universities. Peace values are important for the students in both universities; almost half of the Eastern and Southern Anatolians and some of the Western Anatolians desire to see the value of honesty in people they interact with. There are no general differences between the value preferences of the Eastern and Western people.

Key words: Social studies teaching, value orientations, value education, university youth, eastern-western difference.