İlahiyat Akademi

Öz

Moral literacy can be defined as an individual's ability to comprehend, make sense of, explain his/her choices morally, evaluate moral values and make correct decisions in accordance with moral values by using the knowledge he/she has acquired about moral values. It is very important for individuals to have moral literacy skills in order to recognize the moral situations they will encounter in daily life, to determine the values underlying moral situations, to think about the possible consequences of these moral situations and to make the right decisions in the face of moral problems. Although it is desirable to develop and reinforce moral literacy in out-of-school settings, it is necessary to make this skill a critical component of education. In this context, moral literacy is a skill that can be developed through education with the help of teachers who are knowledgeable about moral issues. Considering the relationship between religion, education and morality, it is possible to say that the most important responsibility lies with Religious Culture and Moral Knowledge teachers. Therefore, it is essential to reveal the opinions of Religious Culture and Moral Knowledge teachers about the skill in question. This study aimed to determine the views of Religious Culture and Moral Knowledge teachers on moral literacy. Before the research, ethics commission approval was obtained from Muş Alparslan University Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Committee (dated 18.04.2023 and numbered 90240), and research application permission was obtained from Muş Provincial Directorate of National Education (dated 17.05.2023 and numbered 93101). The study group of the research was determined by easily accessible case sampling, one of the purposive sampling methods. It consisted of 11 Religious Culture and Moral Knowledge teachers working in Muş in the 2023-2024 academic year. Case study design, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the study, and the research data were collected with a semi-structured interview form prepared by taking expert opinions. The data collection tool consists of two parts. In the first part, there are questions about the demographic characteristics of the Religious Culture and Moral Knowledge teachers such as gender, age, years of employment and the institution where they work. In the second part, there are open-ended questions prepared in line with the purpose of the study. The data of the study were collected through individual and face-to-face interviews with teachers. These collected data were transferred to the MAXQDA 2020 package program and analyzed by content analysis. According to the results obtained in the study, it was determined that the teachers knew the concept of moral literacy, what competencies Religious Culture and Moral Knowledge teachers should have in moral literacy, and how moral literacy skills should be given to students; that teachers were generally competent in providing moral literacy skills to students and that the Religious Culture and Moral Knowledge course contributed to the moral literacy of students. On the other hand, based on the opinions of the teachers, it was concluded that the moral literacy of the students was generally poor. Based on the results of the research, recommendations were developed such as providing trainings on moral literacy skills to pre-service teachers at the National Education Academy, adding moral literacy skills conceptually to the objectives of the curricula of other courses, especially the Religious Culture and Moral Knowledge course, and organizing seminars for parents on how to teach moral literacy skills to their children and how the moral vision of the school can be maintained at home.