A Comparative Study on Children's Perceptions of the Child Rights in the Turkish Community of Turkey and Northern Cyprus

Y

15

Social Justice; Grade 8; Early Adolescents; Citizenship Education; Childrens Rights; Interviews; Foreign Countries; Comparative Analysis; Attitude Measures; Questionnaires; Knowledge Level; Access to Education

Cyprus; Turkey

0013-1172

Developed communities make the children's right education a major part of the primary education, relating it with the human rights education. There are two sides with respect to the children's rights: the children themselves and their family and the school that have rights and interests in them and that determine the radius of action of children in terms of the social life. Both sides should know their rights and responsibilities to exercise these rights. The objective of this study is to determine the extent of children's awareness of their rights and the variables that are effective in it, and to provide data for a study that will make a comparison in this matter in terms of the efficiency of the new citizenship education program to be implemented in the future. This study was planned, aiming at determination of the situation, to consist of open-ended questions, application consisting of minimum 2 teaching periods, a test to be given for the purpose to reveal the change in perceptions, and semi-structured interviews. The statistical data obtained were subjected to evaluation on computer environment, correlated with the answers given to open-ended questions, and supported with the information obtained from the semi-structured interviews. The results of this study indicate that children are not aware of their rights in general; that while most of the children in Turkey have read the CRC,* those in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) have not read; that the Northern Cypriots are more optimistic about the applicability of the CRC compared to people living in Turkey and they believe that the children in Turkey suffered injustice more; and that students in Turkey trust their families more compared to students in the TRNC that their families would think better while they were making decisions in matters concerning themselves. (Contains 6 tables.)

As Provided

16

2010

EJ871554