PRE-SERVICE SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF LEGAL LITERACY

Law is one of the basic elements that regulate social life. legal literacy is a multidimensional concept that includes the basic concepts and information related to law and the legal system. legal literacy is included as a skill in the 2018 social studies curriculum. this study aims to understand pre-service social studies teachers’ perceptions of legal literacy. the research adopted a qualitative phenomenological design. 12 pre-service teachers studying in the social studies teacher training program of the faculty of education at a state university in the 2017-2018 academic year participated in the study. a semi-structured interview was used as a data collection tool in the research. data were analyzed through inductive analysis. findings showed that pre-service teachers defined the concept of law under the themes of rules, rights and order. findings also revealed that pre-service teachers defined legal literacy in the form of knowing basic information about law, knowing legal processes and exercising their rights. three main sources were found that shaped the views of pre-service teachers about legal literacy. specifically, courses, life experiences and current events. pre-service social studies teachers thought that social studies course had a significant role in teaching legal literacy to students.