The Opinions of Prospective Teachers on Using Folk Songs in Social Studies Teaching

The social studies course is one of the most appropriate courses for individuals to acquire social and cultural experiences and to have knowledge and experience in these subjects. The social studies course contains a lot of knowledge, skills, and values to enable the individual to know himself and gain a social identity. It is seen how a society expresses its feelings and emotions at different times, on sad or happy days through folk songs, which have an essential place among the literary products used in the course. This study, which aimed to determine the opinions of the prospective social studies teachers regarding the use of folk songs in social studies courses, was carried out with 16 prospective social studies teachers. In this study, a semi-structured interview form was used to collect data. Explanatory and inferential codes that emerged during the analysis were used to explain the qualitative data and relationships. In line with the data obtained, prospective teachers stated that they found the use of folk song-supported teaching activities in social studies teaching useful in ensuring permanence, drawing students' attention, and being fun. They also expressed that it has benefits such as giving an idea about our national culture, presenting values to students, increasing intelligibility, ensuring that traditions and customs are conveyed from generation to generation, and providing students with different perspectives.


Introduction
The Social Studies course is one of the most suitable courses for individuals to acquire social and cultural experiences and to have knowledge and experience in these fields. The course helps the individual to know himself and gain a social identity through various knowledge, skills, and values.
These knowledge, skills, and values must be given to the students using different methods/techniques, or materials. Fredericks (2007) states that there is a secure link between social studies teaching and literature. At the same time, Demir & Akengin (2011) express that there may be a close relationship between the aims of the social studies course and the impression of literary work on students. Thus, in the social studies curriculum that the integrated structure of social studies was emphasized, and it was underlined that literary works such as legends, epics, fairy tales, proverbs, folk stories, folk songs, and poetry should be used in social studies education (MoNE, 2018). In this sense, one of the literary works used in the social studies course is a "folk song." Through folk songs, it can be observed how society feels and expresses its feelings at different times, on sad or happy days. It contributes to the development of thought by allowing the student to obtain experiences indirectly (Ozturk, Coskun Keskin & Otluoglu, 2014). At the same time, several researchers argue that with the inclusion of Turkish folk songs selected following the social studies course's objectives was found to be affecting students' interests and attitudes towards the lesson positively, increasing the academic success, ensuring the permanence of the information, developing high-level and critical thinking skills, making the lesson fun, encouraging students to improve leadership characteristics (Bolucek, 2008;Donmez & Altıkulaç, 2014;McCall, 2010;Moore, 2007;Sanchéz, 2007;Savage & Savage, 1993;Simsek, 2001;White & McCormack, 2006).
There are many studies in social studies that address the benefits of using literary works. It is crucial to investigate the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of prospective social studies teachers (PSSTs) on how to use folk songs in social studies teaching, as the studies about folk songs are limited in number. It is thought that folk songs in social studies will be beneficial and contribute to the field and teaching process.

Purpose of the Study
This study aims to determine the opinions of prospective social studies teachers regarding the use of folk songs as different teaching material in social studies teaching. The prospective social studies teachers were asked about the following questions by the purpose of the study:  What are prospective social studies teachers perceptions about the use of "folk songs"?
 What are their opinions on learning areas suitable for using "folk songs" in social studies teaching?
 What are the contributions of using "folk songs" as teaching material to the social studies teaching?
 What can be the values that the use of "folk songs" as a teaching material will convey to them?
 What can be considered in the selection of "folk songs"?
 What are the points that they feel insufficient regarding the use of "folk songs" in social studies teaching?
In line with the research sub-objectives, it tried to reveal the prospective teachers' thoughts and experiences.

Method
In this section, the methodology followed in the process is explained. The design of the research, study group, data collection tools, and data analysis were discussed below.

Research Model
In this study, the qualitative method is used in which the researcher is actively involved in the process of collecting information, and the perceptions and events are presented in a natural and holistic perspective, and a verbal form (İslamoglu, 2009;Yıldırım & Simsek, 2011). A basic qualitative research design was used in line with the research aims (Merriam, 2002). Merriam (2009) describes qualitative resarchers conducting a basic qualitative study would be interested in (1) how people interpret their experiences, (2) how they construct their worlds, and (3) what meaning they attribute to their experiences. The overall purpose is to understand how people make sense of their lives and their experiences (p. 23). In line with the research sub-objectives, it tried to reveal the prospective teachers' thoughts and experiences.Thus, the study utilized from the basic qualitative research design to determine in-depth and multiple perspectives and to reach a judgment.

Study Group
The study group of the research was formed according to the appropriate case study technique based on purposive sampling method, which refers to the random selection of individuals and groups for the research (Sonmez & Alacapınar, 2014). A total of 16 prospective social studies teachers constitute the study group of this research, including nine women and seven men, who study at a state university in Turkey during the spring semester of the 2019-2020 academic year.

Data Collection
Before data collection, the researcher did a literature review and established a theoretical framework. The study data were collected through a semi-structured interview form prepared by the researcher within the scope of the research purpose. A different expert opinion was also elicited to validate the interview form. Besides, a pilot study was conducted to clarify statements and ensure validity for the group. In the fall semester of the 2019-2020 academic year, two prospective social studies teachers studying at a state university in Turkey participated in the pilot study. They were asked questions in a draft semi-structured interview form consisting of 6 questions. To the feedback received from the prospective teachers in the pilot study, no correction was seen necessary on the questions. Then, the real study participants were informed about the study process. The interviews were recorded on the voice recorder to prevent data loss and ensure the reliability of the data. During the interview, the questions that were not understood by the prospective teachers were repeated. The qualitative data collected with the help of open-ended questions in the semi-structured interview form were analyzed with 'descriptive analysis' methods.

Data Analysis
In the research, the data obtained from the interviews with the participants were transcribed and analyzed. In this sense, descriptive analysis method, in which direct quotations are frequently used, was used to reflect the opinions of the participants in an effective way (Yıldırım & Simsek, 2011). There were four stages in the data analysis: coding the data, determining the themes in the coded data, organizing the codes and themes, and defining and interpreting the findings (Yıldırım & Simsek, 2011). In the analysis process, the researcher firstly analyzed the interview forms. In the analysis of participants' opinions, groups were made according to the similarity of the expressions. The expressions were presented with the frequencies in tables. The codes and findings obtained in the study were supported by direct excerpts from the teachers' responses to the questions in the interview form. Teachers' real names were not used in the study, and they were coded as PT1, PT2, PT3 … PT13.
Validity is defined as the truth of findings, and the consistency and repeatability of these findings are defined as reliability (Yıldırım & Simsek, 2011). To ensure the validity and reliability of this research, a) in the content analysis, a researcher and a field expert individually examined each form of opinion, and in cases where different statements were found, the relevant data collection tool was examined together, and the relevant analysis unit was rearranged, b) the data were analyzed and presented to the teachers for the approval of the participants, c) the similarity ratios of the data set encoded by more than one encoder are essential in terms of eliminating individual influences and determining reliability (Fidan & Ozturk, 2015;Bozan & Ekinci, 2020). The reliability coefficient was calculated by using the formula [(Reliability= Consensus/ (Consensus + Disagreement))] developed by Miles and Huberman (1994). The reliability of the research was determined as 86%. According to Yıldırım & Simsek (2011), when it is 70%, it is considered to be reliable.

Findings
This section presents the findings obtained from the interviews with the prospective teachers on the use of folk songs as different teaching material.

Prospective Social Studies Teachers' Perceptions of Using "Folk Songs"
Prospective teachers were asked, "What is a folk song?". The tables obtained from the opinions of the prospective social studies teachers and quotations are below.  According to Table 1, the prospective social studies teachers generally defined folk songs as expressing emotions (f=10), and reflection of culture (f=6). At the same time, it was observed that the number of prospective teachers who answered it as a product of oral literature (f=3), a real counterpart in daily life (f=3), and an anonymous literary genre (f=3) was equal.
Below are examples from the opinions of the prospective social studies teachers: "Folk song is the transfer of people's feelings to the ear with a melody" (PT3).
"Folk song is a collection of melodies reflecting the culture of Turkish society." (PT4).
"Folk songs reflect the feelings of people; it contains every emotion that people can feel. (PT6).

Opinions of Prospective Social Studies Teachers for Learning Areas Suitable for the Use of "Folk Song"
The prospective social studies teachers were asked questions about which learning areas are suitable for using folk songs in social studies teaching. The table of prospective teachers' opinions and quotations is below. To the table, most of the prospective teachers stated that "culture and heritage (f=11)" is suitable for the use of folk songs in the social studies course, while some prospective teachers expressed that people, places, and environments (f=6) and active citizenship (f=3) are suitable.
Below are examples from the opinions of the prospective teachers:

Opinions of Prospective Social Studies Teachers about the Contributions of Using Folk Songs to the Social Studies Teaching
The participant teachers were asked questions about the contribution of using folk songs as teaching material to the social studies teaching. The table obtained from the opinions of the prospective teachers and quotations is presented below. According to Table 3, most of the prospective social studies teachers stated that folk songs have an important place in ensuring permanence (f=9). Similarly, teachers reported that the use of folk songs draws students' attention (f=6) and offers a fun learning environment(f=6), as well as giving an idea about Turkish culture (f=5), providing the students with values (f=4). They also added that these songs had benefits such as increasing comprehension (f=3), conveying traditions and customs to the next generations (f=2), and offering a different perspective to students (f=2).
Some of the examples from the excerpts of the prospective teachers are given below: "We must understand and convey that folk songs are unique to this land and culture. Along with these, it also has an important function in conveying values such as love, enthusiasm, and belonging." (PT2).
"Teachers provide appropriate learning areas with folk songs to enable students to understand the lesson more easily, and folk song helps us to explain many topics in social studies courses." (PT5).
"Interaction is activated in the classroom using folk songs in the social studies course. Folk song attracts the students' interest and increases academic success by bringing a quality that will arouse interest in the students." (PT8).

Opinions of the Prospective Teachers about the Values that the Use of "Folk Songs" Conveys to the Students
Prospective social studies teachers were asked questions about what values the use of "folk songs" as teaching material convey to the student. The table and excerpts from the opinions of the prospective teachers are given below. "Since folk songs reflect the values, it is used to transfer the geography features to the students in the best way, and with the folk songs, the consciousness of homeland, nation, religion, language, and history are given." (PT1).
"As folks tell about the lives of a society, they raise the society as individuals who are more conscious, sensitive, and attach importance to family unity." (PT16).

Opinions of Prospective Social Studies Teachers about the Considerations in Selection of "Folk Songs"
Prospective social studies teachers were asked questions about what should be considered in the selection of "folk songs" as teaching material. The table obtained from the opinions of the prospective teachers and quotations is shown below. According to Table 5, most of the prospective social studies teachers expressed that the selected song should be suitable for the course subject (f=10). Besides, prospective teachers suggested that the selection of folk songs should prioritize the values (f=6), be appropriate for the student level (f=5), be understandable and practical (f=4), belong to our own culture (2) and be available for the course objectives (2).
Below are examples from the opinions of the prospective social studies teachers: "It should be noted whether it tells about our values, whether it conveys past events, and whether it awakens national awareness in students." (PT7).
"The subject should be related to the Turkish language and complementary to each other and at the same time that the students can understand." (PT9).
"I make sure that it fully reflects the subject and is suitable for the students' age level. (PT14).

The Points that the Prospective Social Studies Teachers Feel Insufficient Regarding the Use of "Folk Songs" in Social Studies Teaching
Prospective social studies teachers were asked questions about whether they have self-efficacy about the use of "folk song." The table above shows whether the prospective social studies teachers have self-efficacy about using "folk songs." It can be seen in the table that the majority of the answers are similar.
Examples from the opinions of the prospective social studies teachers are as follows: "I felt partially competent because when choosing folk songs, there may be hesitations about whether it is local. As I chose the folk songs, I had difficulty in its suitability for the subject." (PT4).
"I had a little difficulty in choosing folk songs because I tried to find a folk suitable for my course objective. I paid attention to whether the folk songs I found were known to people. I made sure that the content of the subject and the topic described in Turkey are compatible with each other, and I tried to find folk songs appropriate for the levels of the students." (PT5).
"I felt competent because I chose a folk song that will reinforce the subject, and I think it will be understood when I explain its connection with the subject." (PT6)

Conclusion and Discussion
The results and discussion of the findings are presented in this section.

Conclusions, discussions, and suggestions for the use of "folk songs"
The prospective social studies teachers were asked what they understood about the folk songs to determine their knowledge and awareness of folk songs. They described the folk song as expressing emotions (Kaya, 2019;Yakıcı, 2014), reflecting the culture of society (Cetindag, 2005), being a product of oral literature, having a real counterpart in daily life and being an anonymous literary genre.
Folk songs are the oral expression of national culture, traditions, and customs, feelings, and thoughts coming from the past. Through folk songs, feelings and thoughts can be transferred to future generations. The study conducted by Karadeniz (2019) expressed the precious cultural value that folk songs describe the feelings and thoughts of the Turkish people and as a well-established national culture transferred from the past to the present. Tokel (2010) also stated that folk songs are an integral part of Turkish culture and essential in reflecting society's culture. At the same time, it is known that these songs have a real counterpart in life since they give information about the period in which they are in (Sidekli & Coskun, 2014). In this sense, the prospective social studies teachers can be thought to have adequate knowledge about folk songs.

Conclusions, discussions, and suggestions for learning areas suitable for the use of "folk songs"
The prospective social studies teachers were asked which learning areas are more suitable for using folk songs in the social studies course. The prospective teachers found the fields of learning, especially "culture and heritage" and "people, places, and environments," suitable for folk songs. The prospective teachers expressed different opinions regarding the studies on the use of literary works in social studies. It was stated by the participant prospective teachers that "culture and heritage" and "people, places, and environments" learning areas are suitable for the use of literary products, whereas the prospective teachers expressed that they can be used in the fields of "culture and heritage" and "global connections" (Beldag & Aktas, 2016). From this point of view, it can be concluded that the use of folk songs and other literary works in social studies education is limited to certain learning areas and that the learning areas deemed suitable for the use of literary works are common. However, the field of culture and heritage learning has particular importance in transferring our cultural values to future generations (Bolucek, 2008). According to the responses received from prospective teachers, it is seen that the field of culture and heritage learning is more effective in the use of folk songs.

Conclusions, discussions, and suggestions regarding the contributions of "folk songs" to the social studies teaching
The prospective social studies teachers found the use of folk song-supported teaching activities in social studies courses to ensure permanence, drawing students' attention, and fun. They also emphasized that it has benefits such as giving an idea about national culture, giving values to students, increasing comprehension, ensuring that traditions and customs are conveyed from generation to generation, and giving students different perspectives.
Folk songs can be used as a source in social studies courses because they contain information about the period in which they were created (Sidekli & Coskun, 2014). Besides, they help students keep their interest in the lesson alive by stimulating their imagination. Harris (2004) also highlighted that using songs as teaching material could arouse students' interest in the lesson. Sidekli & Coskun (2014) stated that the creation of folk songs by different societies would be useful in gaining different perspectives in social studies courses and using different approaches in teaching social studies subjects. It is suggested that the students' high-level and critical thinking skills improve through music-supported activities (Bolucek, 2008;Moore, 2007;Sanchéz, 2007;White & McCormack, 2006) and that the courses are fun with music-supported activities (Sidekli & Coskun, 2014). Accordingly, students can listen to folk songs first, then make comments and express what the folk songs imply with their sentences, and it also allows the students to filter their knowledge and become critical thinkers (Bolucek, 2008). Thus, the individual's cultural awareness and the ability to express this awareness can be transferred to students through folk songs.
The studies in the literature describe the positive effects of using the literary product such as motivation and socialization of students, providing a fun learning environment, ensuring course achievements and permanency of the learning materials, enriching education, providing attention and participation (Beldag & Aktas, 2016;Yesilbursa & Sabanci, 2015). Using folk songs helps students gain an empathic thinking habit and motivation for the lesson. Hence, using the folk song not only enriches the teaching but also informs the student about the vital components of cultural heritage (Bolucek, 2008). Thus, it is advantageous in many ways to use folk songs-supported educational activities in teaching the social studies course.

Conclusions, discussions, and suggestions regarding the values that the use of "folk songs" will convey to the students
The values of "justice, family unity, independence, peace, being scientific, diligence, solidarity, sensitivity, honesty, aesthetics, equality, freedom, respect, love, responsibility, prudence, patriotism, benevolence" began to be taught in the 2005 social studies curriculum (MoNE, 2005).
Therefore, it can be one of the most effective ways to use literary works in transferring the values in education. The prospective participant teachers suggested that patriotism, love, respect, peace, solidarity, sensitivity, benevolence, diligence, independence, honesty, family unity, tolerance, and equality could be taught through the folk songs in social studies education. Kolac & Ozer (2018) indicated that the values of respect, patriotism, and love could be conveyed with literary works in social studies teaching, as well as sensitivity, tolerance, benevolence, responsibility, honesty, diligence, peace, independence, family unity, and fairness can be conveyed through literary products.
While Sidekli & Coskun (2014) claimed that the values are created in the environment where we live, and folk songs reflect our lives and culture with music, Yesilbursa & Sabanci (2015) pointed out the integration of the structure in the social studies curriculum. They underlined that it is necessary to benefit from literary works in teaching social studies. Cetindag (2005) emphasized that folk songs include the most valuable values that distinguish us from others and reflect all the material and moral values.

Conclusions, discussions, and suggestions regarding the issues to be considered in the selection of "folk songs."
The prospective social studies teachers stated that when choosing "folk songs" as teaching material in the social studies course, they should be suitable for the subject. They also suggested that values should be prioritized in the selection of folk songs, be appropriate for the students' level, be understandable and practical, belong to our own culture, and be suitable for course objectives. It was argued that the literary works used in teaching should have the qualities such as being suitable for students' level, drawing attention, being fun, informative and suitable for the course objective and the national spiritual values, and promoting student participation (Beldag & Aktas, 2016;Bolucek, 2008;Yesilbursa & Sabancı, 2015). In social studies courses, instead of memorizing or teaching irrelevant information from daily life, a productive learning environment can be created for students using epics, fairy tales, riddles, proverbs, folk tales, and folk songs (Bolucek, 2008). Additionally, using such literary works can help students connect with historical events.
Moreover, folk songs provide students with the opportunity to obtain long experiences and contribute to thinking development (Ozturk, Coskun Keskin & Otluoglu, 2014). With folk songs in social studies teaching, folk culture's foundations can be passed on to new generations. After creating an appropriate classroom environment for literary works, the learning-related, open, understandable, engaging, and enriched learning environment can help students ensure the clarity and permanence of the topics covered.
Conclusions, discussions, and suggestions for the prospective teachers' points feel insufficient regarding the use of "folk song." Half of the prospective teachers suggested that they had self-efficacy for the use of folk songs in social studies teaching because they had an interest in folk songs. Others considered themselves partially qualified because they had difficulty in finding folk songs suitable for the course objectives.
In literature, the studies on the use of literary works in social studies education, prospective teachers admitted that they did not have self-efficacy in choosing and using literary works that are relevant and suitable for the student level (Beldag & Aktas, 2016;Yesilbursa & Sabancı, 2015). That can be resolved by having the prospective teachers conduct social studies teaching applications with oralwritten literary works. The prospective social studies teachers should be supported in realizing a teaching environment and activities enriched with literary works.