An Analysis of Secondary School Students ’ Views Regarding Basic Democratic Values in terms of Several Variables

This research aims to explore secondary school students’ views regarding basic democratic values in terms of several variables. The research has utilized the cross-sectional survey model, which is one of the descriptive survey models. The population of the research consists of secondary school students studying at schools located within the province of Elazig. The research sample holds a total of 440 secondary school students studying at secondary schools located within the province of Elazig during 2016-2017 academic year. The participants have been selected by stratified sampling method. This research has deployed personal information form and basic democratic values as data collection tools. Descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) have been used during data analysis. Research results have suggested that secondary school students have a “high” level of participation regarding basic democratic values scale. While a significant difference has been identified across the dimensions of the basic democratic values in terms of gender, class level, academic achievement and socio-economic levels of the schools, parents’ educational status is free from any significant difference. Based upon the research findings, various recommendations have been provided. Future studies may be conducted on parents’ views regarding basic democratic values. Basic democratic values adopted by the students studying at schools with different socio-economic levels should be sought through observations.


Introduction
The rapid change and progress in science and technology in the twenty-first century have fundamentally affected the cultural structures of societies.This change in science and technology at a rapid pace has led the world to transform into a small village.People communicate with each other through communication and information technologies, and hence far distances get closer.In consequence, individuals having different cultural characteristics have come into continuous first-hand contact.This has contributed to the emergence of basic democratic values such as respect for differences, tolerance, cooperation, fairness, compassion, etc. between individuals having different faiths and ethnic identities as well as speaking different languages.
The concept of value is defined in different ways.Value is the sensitivities held by the individuals towards any person, entity, event, situation, etc. (Yaman, 2012).Aydin and Akyol-Gurler (2014) have stated that value is a measure that determines the significance of something and separates what emerges and what is required.Values constitute the general criteria of the judgments that we have regarding the lives of ourselves and other people.Values shape the rules that govern our behaviors (Newman, 2013).Values are the reinforcing and fusing elements that distinguish one culture from another and prevent the fragmentation of individuals living within certain limitations as well as securing uniformity (Yildirim, 2017).Values have a significant role in the life of societies.It contributes to the peaceful and happy living of the society.Values can be considered as a mortar combining society.Democratic values have a significant place for the society to live in a peaceful, happy and harmonious life.
The concept of democracy refers to "self-governance of individuals" or "participation in government and having a say", and these definitions are valid in political environments (Agboyraz, 2015).The history of humanity sheds light to the fact that multiple values such as human, human freedom, people's belief, freedom of thought, freedom of expression have begun to emerge with the process of democratization.Progress has accelerated in this area thanks to education.Democratic values have been a hot topic around the whole world (Ulusoy & Dilmac, 2015).Democracy is a functioning system, and the most important factor that increases its functioning is the values.These values are freedom, pluralism, multi-option choice, participation, discussion, reconciliation, tolerance, respect for human rights, equality, differentiation, clarity and precision, etc. (Yilmaz, 2011).An individual who embraces democratic values advocates equality, brotherhood, freedom and peace in every field (Bayramoglu, 2016).It is of great importance to pave the way for students to gain democratic values.Nowadays, one of the essential reasons for the conflicts between individuals and societies is that democratic values are not adopted by these individuals and societies.In this respect, teaching-learning process should be organized in order to enliven democratic values within education.
Upon analyzing the relevant literature in Turkey, various studies have been conducted on examining whether secondary school students hold democratic values (Ilgan, Karayigit & Cetin, 2013;Ozdemir, 2016), analyzing their levels of gaining basic democratic values (Doganay & Sari, 2004), their perspectives towards social values (Ergun-Kaplan & Sulak, 2017) and their democracy perceptions (Kaldirim, 2005).However, no such a study has been published specifically on examining secondary school students' views regarding basic democratic values in terms of several variables.The lack of in-depth research has been considered as a shortcoming by the researcher since it is highly significant to raise students having democratic values.Developed and developing countries have been altering their curricula and integrating democratic values into them.Indeed, the curriculum was renovated in Turkey in 2017 has included some of the proposed democratic values (Ministry of Education [MoE], 2017a;2017b).In this respect, this study is well worth in terms of examining secondary school students' views regarding basic democratic values depending on several variables and drawing a wider picture related to the topic.Thus, this research is expected to shed light on secondary school teachers and administrators and parents.This research aims to explore secondary school students' views regarding basic democratic values in terms of gender, class level, academic achievement, parents' educational status and socio-economic variables.With this at hand, answers to the following questions have been sought: 1. What are participation levels of secondary school students related to the dimensions of basic democratic values scale? 2. Do secondary school students' views regarding the dimensions of the basic democratic values scale significantly vary across their gender?3. Do secondary school students' views regarding the dimensions of the basic democratic values scale significantly vary across their class level? 4. Do secondary school students' views regarding the dimensions of the basic democratic values scale significantly vary across academic achievement? 5. Do secondary school students' views regarding the dimensions of the basic democratic values scale significantly differ across mother educational status? 6. Do secondary school students' views regarding the dimensions of the basic democratic values scale significantly differ across father educational status? 7. Do secondary school students' views regarding the dimensions of the basic democratic values scale significantly differ across socio-economic level?

Research Model
This research has employed a descriptive survey model.The survey model enables a quantitative or numerical representation of trends, attitudes or views across the universe through studies on a sample selected from a population (Creswell & Creswell, 2018).The research has utilized the cross-sectional survey model, which is one of the descriptive survey models.The cross-sectional survey is a type of survey collected from a group in a short period of time (Fraenkel, Wallen & Hyun, 2014).The aim of the cross-sectional survey is to define the status of the scanned phenomenon at any given time rather than its change in time (Ozdemir, 2014).Cross-sectional survey model has been used in the present study since the data related to secondary students' views on basic democratic values has been collected in a short period of time and current situation is described.

Population and Sample
The population of the research consists of secondary school students studying at schools located within the province of Elazig.The research sample holds a total of 440 secondary school students studying at secondary schools located within the province of Elazig during the 2016-2017 academic year.The participants have been selected by stratified sampling method which signifies that all elements in the lower population have an equally likely chance of being selected.With stratified sampling, the researcher divides the population into homogeneous subgroups or strata depending on the variable considered as significant for the study (Karasar, 2015: 113).The research sample has been divided into three socio-economic levels.The research population has been stratified as the low, middle and high socioeconomic levels through information obtained from the Elazig Provincial Directorate of National Education.Sub-groups have been selected by random sampling with the number representing each strata (subgroup), and then these subgroups have been combined in order to form the sample.Volunteer participants have been included in the research.
Table 1 depicts the demographic information regarding the participants.1 depicts that the number of female students were higher (56%), the participants were mostly 6 th grade students (37%), mother (44%) and father (38%) educational status was mostly primary school (23%), and the schools had mostly low socio-economic level (43%).

Data Collection Tools
This research had deployed two data collection tools.These were: Personal Information Form.A form had been developed in order to determine the personal information regarding secondary school students.The form included questions related to the participants' gender, class level, academic achievement and mother-father educational status.
Basic Democratic Values Scale.This research had employed "Basic Democratic Values Scale" developed by Uygun and Engin (2014).Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses have been conducted during the development of the scale.The exploratory factor analysis had revealed that the tool possesses four dimensions and explains 33.84 % of the total variance.Buyukozturk (2019) stated that the total variance of a scale in social sciences should be 30% or more.The total variance of this scale, which was developed in this regard, was considered to be sufficient.The cooperation dimension of the scale consisted of 10 items, the factor loadings varied between .38 and .63;self-confidence dimension included 9 items, and the factor loadings differed between .37 and .63.The respect for differences dimension comprised 8 items, the factor loadings varied between .37 and .64, the fairness dimension consisted of 7 items, and the factor loadings varied between .37 and .64(Uygun & Engin, 2014).The Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficients of the dimensions-cooperation, self-confidence, respect for the differences and fairness-have been determined to be .77,.69,.63and.55, respectively (Uygun & Engin, 2014).Conformity factor analysis had also been conducted to ensure the confirmation of the dimensions.This scale had been used after obtaining the necessary permission.The research had determined the Cronbach Alpha coefficient of the scale as .80.Based on this reference, the scale can be considered highly reliable (Fraenkel, Wallen & Hyun, 2014).

Data Analyses
The research confirmed whether data provided the general requirements of the parametric tests.Thus, the Kolomogrov Smirnov test was assessed whether the data distributed normally.The analysis results have suggested that cooperation (K-S=.095,p<.05), self-confidence (K-S=.102,p<.05), respect for differences (K-S=.065,p<.05) and fairness (K-S=.101,p<.05) dimensions of the basic democratic values scale did not display normal distribution.On that point, the researcher has examined skewness and kurtosis coefficients and found that normality is ensured.Descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) have been used during data analysis.Several assumptions must be tested to use MANOVA.These are providing multivariate normality, testing the homogeneity of variances, ensuring the homogeneity of variance-covariance matrix and the absence of multiple linear link (Akbulut, 2011;Field, 2009;Pallant, 2005;Secer, 2015).Extreme values have been identified and excluded from the scope of the research.All assumptions have been met in this regard.The effect sizes of the analyses have also been calculated and displayed in the related tables.Green and Salkind (2013) have noted that the effect size value (ƞ2) is evaluated as small .01,.06medium, and .14large.

Findings
This section presents findings related to the participation levels of secondary school students' views on basic democratic values and whether their views significantly vary across gender, class level, academic achievement, parents' educational status and socio-economic level.  2 displays that secondary school students had a "high" level of participation regarding their views on the dimensions of cooperation ( X = 4.19), self-confidence ( X = 4.16), respect for differences ( X = 3.59) and fairness ( X =3.44 ).
Table 3 shows the one-factor MANOVA results related to whether secondary school students' views on the dimensions of the basic democratic values scale differ across their gender.One-way multivariate variance analysis (MANOVA) has been conducted in order to determine the common effect of gender variable on secondary school students' views related to cooperation, self-confidence, respect for differences and fairness dimensions of the basic democratic values scale.Upon examining the assumptions of the MANOVA analysis, the homogeneity assumption of the dispersion matrix is ensured according to Box's M statistic (F10-501985.930=1.605,p=.098).When MANOVA table has been examined, a statistically significant difference has been identified across the dimensions in terms of gender (Wilk's Λ= .933,F (1, 342)=6.084,p=.00).Table 3 also displays a significant difference across the dimensions of cooperation (F1-342=4.37,p<.05), self-confidence (F1-342=14.59,p<.05), respect for differences (F1-342=16.79,p<.05) and fairness (F1-342=7.02,p<.05) in favour of female students.In addition, the interaction between gender and the dimensions of basic democratic values scale has been determined to be low (Green & Salkind, 2013).
Table 4 presents the one-factor MANOVA results related to whether secondary school students' views on the dimensions of the basic democratic values scale differ across class level.One-way multivariate variance analysis (MANOVA) has been performed with a view to identifying the common effect of class level variable on secondary school students' views related to cooperation, self-confidence, respect for differences and fairness dimensions of the basic democratic values scale.Upon examining the assumptions of the MANOVA analysis, the homogeneity assumption of the dispersion matrix is ensured according to Box's M statistic (F30-164977.566=1.446,p=.054).MANOVA table has revealed a statistically significant difference across the dimensions in terms of class level (Wilk's Λ= .928,F (3,340)=2.114,p=.01).Considering one-way analysis of variance results in Table 4, no significant difference has been noted across the dimensions of cooperation (F3-340=.56,p>.05), self-confidence (F3-340=1.45,p>.05), respect for differences (F3--340=.86,p>.05), while a significant difference has been determined across fairness (F3-340=7.02,p<.05) in favour of the 8 th grade students.Besides, the interaction between class level and the dimensions of basic democratic values scale has been found to be low.
The one-factor MANOVA results related to whether secondary school students' views on the dimensions of the basic democratic values scale differ across academic achievement have been displayed in Table 5. One-way multivariate variance analysis (MANOVA) has been performed for the purpose of determining the common effect of academic achievement variable on secondary school students' views related to cooperation, self-confidence, respect for differences and fairness dimensions of the basic democratic values scale.Upon analyzing the assumptions of the MANOVA analysis, the homogeneity assumption of the dispersion matrix is not ensured according to Box's M statistic (F30-13426.164=2.228, p=.000).In this case, Pillai's Trace value should be considered (Akbulut, 2011).MANOVA table has suggested a statistically significant difference across the dimensions in terms of academic achievement (Pillai's Trace Λ=.174, F(3, 340)=5.212,p=.00).Considering one-way analysis of variance results in Table 5, a significant difference has been noted across the dimensions of cooperation (F3-340=5.84,p<.05), self-confidence (F3-340=12.46,p<.05), respect for differences (F3--340=10.97,p<.05) and fairness (F3-340=11.09,p<.05) in favour of those having between 85-100 academic achievement score.Besides, the interaction between academic achievement and the dimension of cooperation has been found to be low, while medium level of effect on the dimensions of self-confidence, respect for differences and fairness.
Table 6 presents the one-factor MANOVA results related to whether secondary school students' views on the dimensions of the basic democratic values scale vary across mother educational status.One-way multivariate variance analysis (MANOVA) has been conducted so as to determine the common effect of mother's educational status variable on secondary school students' views related to cooperation, self-confidence, respect for differences and fairness dimensions of the basic democratic values scale.Upon examining the assumptions of the MANOVA analysis, the homogeneity assumption of the dispersion matrix is ensured according to p=.378).MANOVA table has revealed that the dimensions of basic democratic values do not significantly vary across mother educational status (Wilks' Lamda Λ= .174,F(4, 339)=1.381,p=.14).Moreover, the interaction between mother educational status and the dimensions of basic democratic values scale has been determined to be low.
Table 7 displays the one-factor MANOVA results related to whether secondary school students' views on the dimensions of the basic democratic values scale vary across father educational status.One-way multivariate variance analysis (MANOVA) has been conducted so as to determine the common effect of father's educational status variable on secondary school students' views related to cooperation, self-confidence, respect for differences and fairness dimensions of the basic democratic values scale.Upon examining the assumptions of the MANOVA analysis, the homogeneity assumption of the dispersion matrix was ensured according to Box's M statistic (F50-16695.058=.900,p=.673).MANOVA table has revealed that the dimensions of basic democratic values were free from any significant difference in terms of father educational status (Wilks' Lamda Λ=.934, F(5, 338)=1.157,p=.28).Moreover, the interaction between father's educational status and the dimensions of basic democratic values scale has been determined to be low.
The one-factor MANOVA results related to whether secondary school students' views on the dimensions of the basic democratic values scale differ across socio-economic level have been depicted in Table 8.One-way multivariate variance analysis (MANOVA) has been conducted to determine the common effect of socioeconomic level variable on secondary school students' views related to cooperation, self-confidence, respect for differences and fairness dimensions of the basic democratic values scale.Upon examining the assumptions of the MANOVA analysis, the homogeneity assumption of the dispersion matrix was ensured according to p=.620).Considering one-way analysis of variance results in Table 8, no significant difference has been noted across the dimensions of respect for differences (F2-341=.38,p>.05) and fairness (F2-341=.54,p>.05), while a significant difference has been determined across cooperation (F2-341=.04,p<.05) and self-confidence (F3-340=.04,p<.05) in favour of the students studying in schools with high socio-economic level.
3. Studies on parents' views regarding basic democratic values may be conducted as parents play a significant role in ensuring individuals to acquire values.4. The studies conducted on the basic democratic values were adopted by the students studying at schools with different socio-economic levels through observations will make a great contribution to the related literature. 5.In terms of socio-economic levels of the students, a significant difference was obtained in favour of those with high socio-economic status.It will be beneficial to give trainings on basic democratic values for students with low socioeconomic level.

Table 1 .
The demographic information regarding the participants

Table 2
displays the participation levels of the secondary school students' views regarding basic democratic values.

Table 2 .
Secondary school students' participation levels regarding their views on basic democratic values

Table 3 .
One-factor MANOVA results regarding secondary school students' views on the dimensions of the basic democratic values in terms of gender

Table 4 .
One-factor MANOVA results regarding secondary school students' views on the dimensions of the basic democratic values in terms of class level

Table 5 .
One-factor MANOVA results regarding secondary school students' views on the dimensions of the basic democratic values in terms of academic achievement

Table 6 .
One-factor MANOVA results regarding secondary school students' views on the dimensions of the basic democratic values in terms of mother educational status

Table 7 .
One-factor MANOVA results regarding secondary school students' views on the dimensions of the basic democratic values in terms of father educational status

Table 8 .
One-factor MANOVA results regarding secondary school students' views on the dimensions of the basic democratic values in terms of socio-economic level