Socio-cultural Education in the Early Childhood Period via Examples of Art Which Belong to Turkish Culture

Abstract

This study aims to set an example for the possibility of giving socio-cultural education in the early childhood period via examples of art which belong to Turkish culture. At the present time, cultural values change and reduce their effectiveness together with globalization. For this reason, it is necessary for the individual to know and internalize the culture in which s/he takes part beginning from the early childhood period so that cultural values can get through globalization period with minimal damage. In this sense, the necessity of giving sociocultural education in the early childhood period arises. In this study, activities of musical instruments, ceramics and marbling art which represent our culture have been given place as part of some art activities belonging to Turkish culture due to the fact that both they reflect the creativity and the inner world of the children and they are some of the values belonging to the culture. As musical instruments which represent our culture, “kabak kemane,” bagpipe, drum and “kopuz” have been chosen and the activities have been prepared and carried out for a week on 6 year-old group in a nursery school. The study, which has been carried out through the pattern of action research that is one of the qualitative research methods, has been applied in two stages as pilot practice and main practice. 24 children have attended to the research; 11 of them have been included in the process during the pilot practice and 13 of them have been included during the main practice. It has been tried to enhance the validity of the activities used in the research by the aid of pilot practices. The implementation phase has been recorded in a camera and the recorded images have been put down on paper. The written data, and the speech, the expressions and the products of children during the activities have been subjected to interpretive analysis. As a result of the research, within the context of sociocultural education of the children, it has come out that they use the skill of reasoning and problem-solving, they make association with daily life, they establish cause and effect relation, they can establish empathy and they have perception of past and concept of moment. Some meetings have been held with the children a month after the activities were carried out. As a consequence of these meetings, it has been seen that 9 children of 11 remember “kabak kemane”, 6 children remember bagpipe, 11 children remeber drum and 7 children remember “kopuz” which are introduced within the context of musical instruments belonging to Turkish culture. It has come out that only 5 children remember marbling art and ceramics.

Keywords

• socio-cultural education
• early childhood period
• art.