5th Grade Primary School Students’ Perceptions on the Notion of Republic, Reign, and Leadership in the Social

The objective of this study is to examine the perceptions of 5th grade students concerning the notion of republic, reign, and leadership, and to identify the reasons of these perceptions. In this research, phenomenography method has been used as the data collection and analysis method. A semi-structured interview form has been used as the data collection method. Randomly selected fifteen 5th grade students, who are attending state schools during the spring semester of 2010-2011 education and instruction year in a Southern province of Turkey, constitute the working group of the current study. The findings reveal that 5th grade students do not perceive the notions by themselves. Students perceive the notion of republic as Ataturk, nation, administration, war, rights, freedom, revolution, symbol, and Turkey. Similarly, the notion of reign is perceived as sultanate, sultan, Ataturk and music, and the notion of leadership is perceived as managership, superiority, manuduction, and victory. In conclusion, many students are not able to associate republic with its true meaning, namely administration, but they are able to associate it with other notions to a large extent. It should be noted that various dimensions of the notions should be emphasized to fully teach them. Also, the basic meaning of the notion should be taken as the focal point