The opinions of pre-service social studies teachers regarding the soup kitchen project

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the opinions of pre-service social studies teachers regarding the soup kitchen project that they conduct. The study was carried out with the 3rd grade students enrolled at the department of social studies education at the education faculty of a state university in Turkey in 2015-2016 academic year. Food distribution activities were conducted by six teacher candidates for ten weeks in a foundation that provided soup kitchen services in the city centre where the university was located; and the opinions of the teacher candidates regarding the implementation were gathered. In this study, case study design, one of the qualitative research methods, was applied. Focus group interviews were used to collect data. Support was taken from the relevant literature and experts in the development of the interview questions. Descriptive analysis technique was applied on the collected data. The findings of the study are thought to be significant in terms of enlightening pre-service teachers who will conduct a soup kitchen project in the community service practices course about the problems encountered, solutions, benefits, and feedbacks. As a result of the research, it was revealed that the soup kitchen project had important contributions to pre-service social studies teachers, the most commonly experienced problem was related to the delays due to road works, pre-service teachers made significant recommendations to the people who would take part in the soup kitchen project or to the institutions associated with the soup kitchen project, the foundation reached the real destitute, and the corporate staff were in positive attitudes and behaviours. Considering these results, various recommendations were made. © The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology.