Children Rights in Social Studies Curricula in Elementary Education: a Comparative Study

Abstract

Social studies classes educate students as citizens who are expected to adopt democratic values and apply their information and richness to their life. Social studies classes are the ones that include human rights education in the first place. The purpose of this study is to make a comparison of inclusion levels of children's rights issues in Turkish and USA social studies curricula. The study adopts the survey model. Data source of the study is all the gains in social studies curricula of Turkey and the USA. We used the content analysis, which is a qualitative research method, in this study. Turkish social studies curriculum was found to include children's rights more than USA curriculum does. Gains with right to participation takes the most place in Turkish social studies curriculum whereas gains with the right to development take the most allocated place in USA social studies curriculum. In addition, neither country's curriculum included gains with the children's right to protection in social studies curricula.