Action Research on Using Drama in Human Rights Education

Human rights and democracy education is a form of education which includes furnishing
individuals with social behaviors, and learning through experience should be considered as the
grounds in order for it to make permanent changes and allow students to internalize human rights
and democracy manners. Thus, the problem statement of the research question is as follows; “What
are pre-service teachers’ perceptions, opinions and interpretations on the effectiveness of using
drama about human rights and democracy education in training Social Sciences pre-service
teachers?” The study group of the action research consists of 69 junior students who were studying
in the Department of Social Sciences Teaching during 2012-2013 academic year and who were taking
Human Rights and Democracy course. Data for the study were gathered through open-ended
question forms, semi-structured interviews and video recordings taken during drama activities. The
data were analyzed by using content analysis and descriptive analysis methods. It was observed that
human rights and democracy education could turn into social behaviors and the setting required for
enabling awareness could be provided through drama activities.