Prospective Teachers ’ Opinions Concerning Children ’ s Rights

Consideration of the child as a social being and his/her not having the power of self-protection have propounded the significance of children’s rights. Teachers are important to educate the individual. Prospective teachers who will be teachers of the future will have a considerable amount of presidency. Thus, the main objective of this research is to reveal the opinions of prospective teachers regarding children rights. Among the qualitative research methods, phenomenological research method has been adopted in this study. Among the participants of the study were 30 prospective teachers who were senior students from three different teacher education programs from a university placed in Turkey. Participants were from the departments of preschool teacher education (n=10), primary school teacher education (n=10) and social studies teacher education (n=10). Data were collected through a structured interview and analyzed by means of content analysis method. According to the findings, most prospective teachers believe that children possess differences in their educational settings, family life, economical situations and their environment that they are being raised. Hence, almost all of them stated inequality among children. Regarding implementation of child rights in the families, all prospective teachers have regarded child at an important position within the family; however, they have mentioned that families did not pay required attention to children’s right. According to prospective teachers, families should realize child as an individual, look after their rights and pay respect to children’s opinions. Furthermore, implementation of children’s rights at schools highlighted two views: The first one stress that schools are not provided required sensitivity to children’s rights, and secondly children show discipline problems in school due to limitless freeness provided for them. Regarding helping children for comprehending their rights, prospective teachers mentioned importance of reaching the large masses by means of mass media and raising the awareness of families through activities such as seminars.


Introduction
The protection of child and children's rights is one of the most important matters in today's world.The consideration of the child as a social being and his not having the power of self-protection have propounded the significance of child rights.Especially after the Second World War, the concepts of democracy, human rights and by extension the children's rights have come to light and various declarations and conventions relevant to this issue have been signed and published.This situation initiating the democratization process has also rebounded on the rights of child, because the children are the most helpless and the most vulnerable ones among people.For this reason, the liabilities of adults to realize the child rights are included in all kinds of international regulation related to human rights.The hope and expectation for children to develop in a way to fulfill their all potentials should not eliminate the right of being child, which is a very important fundamental right of the children.Just because the child is in need of being a child, and hence he/she has the natural right to it.The definition of the child notion has varied according to gender, historical process, the level and class of the defining society (Christensen & James, 2000).Additionally, childhood involves different life years as based on the field of science within the scope of which is dealt.Science fields consider the beginning of childhood as the moment of birth but do not share the same opinions concerning the childhood process and its ending (Akyüz, 2013).
In regard to the ending of childhood, age of majority is taken as a basis.The notion of the age of majority differs as based on the civil law, criminal law, political and other rules both in a specific country and among the countries.Moreover, the notion of youth is a concept interwoven with the childhood notion.In relation to this, Yentürk and Beyazova (2010) have stated that a universal definition for childhood and youth does not exist; United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization regards the age group standing for the youth between the ages of 15 and 24, whereas the World Bank characterizes the age group of 12-24 and the European Union accepts the age group of 15-25 as young.In our country, the majority shows congruence with the statement "Any individual who is under the age of 18 is a child."contained in the first article related to the definition of child of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child, considering the regulations for the age in the scopes such as marriage, labour, criminal liabilities and etc., of the Turkish Civil Code, Turkish Penal Code and Labour Law (Arkadaş & Müftü, 2010).
According to the data for the year 2013, over 76 million people live in Turkey (Note 1).The total for the ones aged 0-18 of this population is at around 24 millions.In accordance with the date of the 31 st December of 2015, over 78 million people live in Turkey.Approximately 25 millions of these are children.This means that nearly 33% of the population consists of children.According to Doğan (2001), these serious indicators in the number of children point out that child population in Turkey is a significant social fact for the state and society.
Child is a human being who is innocent, sensitive, dependent and developing; and as well, curious, vivid and full of hope.If child experiences this stage by playing, learning and developing, the both become happy himself and contribute to the welfare and happiness of society in future.For this reason, countries, if they want to develop and live in peace and prosperity, are obliged to take cognizance of children's healthy growth and development in line with their abilities (Akyüz, 2013, p. 1).
The need for children to receive special attention, assistance and necessary protection introduces the requirement that regulations for children must be made within legal systems.It is possible to define the rights of child as the whole of rights with which all the children in the world endows by law or on moral grounds, such as education, health, housing, and protection against physical, psychological or sexual exploitation (Wald, 1986;Antakyalıoğlu & Kumcu, 2010, p. 35).Child rights are a set of rights which have been established in order that the world's children can live in welfare and happiness, lead a life free of abuses and neglects and live only their childhoods as it should be (Erbay, 2010, p. 167).
In 1894, for the first time, Jules de Jeune brought forward the idea of an institution for the protection of children internationally.However, the most important advancement in this area is the establishment of "International Charity Association" in Geneva in 1920.As a result of the efforts made by this association and "International Women's Council", League of Nations issued a declaration under the name of "Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child" on the date of 26 th September, 1924.This Declaration, which was also signed by Atatürk himself, consisted of five articles including the principles of the child's development and protection, receiving treatment, being educated, protected from abuse; and the first of all, receiving assistance and being brought up in the spirit of fellowship and peace (Akyüz, 2001).
The second important international document which is about child rights is United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child, consisting of ten articles and approved by United Nations (UN) General Assembly on the date of the 20 th November, 1959.This Declaration has established certain principles in the matters of anti-discrimination, children's right for having name and citizenship, health and social security right, the specially protection of the disabled and children in need of protection, right to education, right of priority in terms of protection, protection from abuse, being kept out of divisive pressures and brought up in fellowship spirit (Akyüz, 1980).
As it is known, declarations approved by states do not have any binding feature and sanction in case they are not compiled.Therefore, under the leadership of Poland, the idea concerning that the rights of the child should be guaranteed by a convention binding for contracting countries was brought forward.Following a preparation work lasted for 10 years; a draft in which the legal systems of all the UN member countries had been taken into consideration was prepared.That draft was accepted unanimously in the 44 th General Assembly of United Nations on the date of 20 th November, 1989.Turkey signed the Convention on the 14 th September, 1990.After that, Turgut Özal, the President at the time, attended the Summit for Children which was assembled in New York on the 30 th September of 1990.The convention was accepted by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TGNA) on the 9 th December of 1994 and enacted as the law numbered 4058, by making a reservation to the 17 th , 29 th , and 30 th articles, by the Cabinet of Ministers, on the 23 rd December of 1994.It was published in the Official Gazette dated 27 th January 1995 and numbered 22814 (Karaman-Kepenekçi, 2000;Akyüz, 2001;Aras, Birinci, & Özdemir-Uluç, 2001;Doğan, 2002).
Convention on Children's Rights is the essential legal document on child rights at the present time.The convention consists of preface and three parts.In the preface, in addition to the UN's fundamental principles, certain articles of conventions and declarations of human rights have been referred to and it has been stated that children are in need of a special attention and protection by the reason of their vulnerable positions.It has been emphasized that the responsibility of protecting children belongs to the family at first, and the state will also help the family on this matter.In the first part, the rights required to be owned by children under 18 in order to enable their sustenance, development, protection and participation and states' share to make all these realized are involved.In the second and third part, the liability of contracting countries for teaching the rights to children and adults widely by proper means, and the rules for the effectiveness of the Convention and monitoring the compliance to the Convention are involved (Akyüz, 2001).

Purpose of Research
Our educational institutions are one of the places where the recognition and implementation of the rights of the child are required to be ideally performed.It is important to what extent the teachers and managers know the rights of the child, how they evaluate and up to which level they implement these in our educational institutions.This also makes important to what extent teachers rising know and adopt the rights of the child.Teacher candidates will be future teachers.Teachers are also raising and shaping individuals.For this reason, prospective teachers have a big pre-requisite for the formation of a society sensitive to children's rights.The main objective of this research is to reveal the opinions of prospective teachers on the children's rights.Within this scope, it was sought for answer to the following question.

"How were prospective teachers' views on children's rights in terms of
 their perception of children rights'  its treatment in families and schools,  activities for providing awareness for the rights of the child?"

Method
Being qualitative research in nature, the current study has been conducted as phenomenological research.
Phenomenology is to define the common aspects of the independent participants' views, in accordance with the data gathered by interviewing with them, focusing on a particular phenomenon.Structured interview has been made in data collection.Structured interview consists of the questions addressed in order to obtain certain answers from the respondents.
The questions are open-ended questions which have been predetermined (Fraenkel & Wallen, 2009, p. 446).Study group consists of 30 senior students, as 10 prospective teachers from each department including preschool teaching, primary school teaching and social studies teaching.Purposive sampling has been used while selecting the study group.Purposive sampling method allows to research thoroughly by the selection of information-rich cases as based on the research objective (Büyüköztürk, Kılıç Çakmak, Akgün, Karadeniz, & Demirel, 2008).Among the purposive sampling strategies, criterion sampling model has been adopted to select prospective teachers, who were registered and succeed in the courses covering children's rights in their content.The logic of criterion sampling is to study all cases that meet some predetermined criterion of importance (Patton, 1990, p. 176).As mentioned before, teachers have important roles in the formation of the society because they train the individual.Thus the study group has been selected from senior students, because they are closest to being a teacher.
Demographics of the participants included 7 females and 3 males from primary school teacher, 9 females and 1 male from preschool teacher and 7 males and 3 females from social studies teacher program.Prospective teachers have voluntarily participated to the study.Their departments have been selected with the thought that these departments are the ones which have the furthest information on account of courses for the children's rights and/or course contents.
The analysis of the data collected from the responses of the prospective teachers utilized content analysis techniques.Firstly, written answers were coded and divided into categories and sub-categories by the researchers.The initial coder agreement rate calculated as 82% according to Miles and Huberman's (1994) formula.The items that were caused disagreement have been re-evaluated until an agreement has been achieved.Categories and subcategories were presented by means of descriptive statistics (frequency).Abbreviations used in this study; PT: preschool teacher, PPT: primary school teacher, SST: social studies teacher.

Findings
In this part, prospective teachers' opinions concerning the rights of the child are involved.According to the area of interest 2 1 2 In Table 1, the answers for which prospective teachers have given to the question concerning whether children are equal or not are included.Prospective preschool teachers have stated that children are not equal (f=15) in large part, and they are indecisive on the matter of equality (f=4).Prospective primary school teachers have also stated that children are not equal (f=19), and therefore indicated that the children are equal (f=4).Prospective social studies teachers have expressed that children are not equal (f=15) and they are indecisive on the matter of equality (f=6).When evaluated generally, it has been seen that equality among students does not exist, various conditions like being disabled and individual differences lead to the inequality, and the equality should only stand for being equal on the basis of education received.In Table 2, the subjects and categories regarding the answers to which the prospective teachers have given for the question of what will happen in case of the violation of the children's rights are violated are included.
Prospective preschool teachers have stated that the realization of child's individuality will not occur (f=10) and the society will be negatively affected (f=6).Prospective primary school teachers have also stated that children will not realize themselves as individuals (f=14) and the society will be negatively affected (f=6).Prospective social studies teachers have indicated that if the rights of the child are violated, this will result in negative consequences for the society (f=13) and prevent the child's individuality (f=10).Considered generally, the idea that corrupted personalities will grow up in the events that child's rights are violated and/or exploited or if allowed, and naturally this will result in a corrupted society has revealed.Ignorance of rights 3 -3 Self-confidence --3 In Table 3, the subjects and categories regarding the answers to which the prospective teachers have given on what the rights of the child are like within the family are involved.As it is seen in the Table 3, prospective preschool teachers have stated that the family difference (f=8) is important in terms of child rights and the family practice is also important (f=6).Prospective primary school teachers have pointed out that the family differences (f=4) and individual rights (f=5) are important in terms of showing awareness to child rights, as is the case in prospective preschool teachers.As for the prospective social studies teachers, they have stated that the family difference (f=16) is important on the matter of child rights and family practices (f=10) are also important.In general, when the answers given by the prospective teachers have been evaluated, it is seen that families regard the child at a highly important position within the family, but do not pay necessary attention to the rights of the child and have negative opinions on the exercise of children's rights in the family.In Table 4, the subjects and categories regarding the answers to which the prospective teachers have given on what the rights of the child are like in the school are involved.As it is seen in the Table 4, prospective Preschool teachers have stated that children's individual rights are not taken notice of (f=12).Prospective primary school teachers have pointed out that there is no equality in terms of the rights of the child which are being exercised in the school (f=4) and the student's rights are ignored in the school.Prospective Social studies teachers have stated that there are some problems on child rights exercised in the school (f=6) and child's individuality (f=4) is not developed in the school.Considering generally, two types of points of view have been encountered.The first of these is child rights' not being exercised by due care in the schools and the other one is in the way that students are set much free in the schools and this case leads to discipline problems.No educational equality 1 5 2 Instilling Self-Confidence --6 In Table 5, the subjects and categories regarding the answers to which the prospective teachers have given on what the rights of the child are in the school are involved.As it is seen in the Table 5, prospective preschool teachers have stated that children's individual rights are not taken notice of (f=6) and there are some teacher-based problems (f=6).Prospective primary school teachers have pointed out that there is no equality in terms of the rights of child which are being exercised in the school (f=8) and there is some teacher based problems (f=5).Prospective social studies teachers have stated that there are some problems on children's rights exercised in the school, which are resulted from the teacher (f=9) and child's confidence (f=6) is not developed in the school.Considering generally, two types of points of view have been encountered.The first of these is child rights' not being exercised by due care in the schools and the other one is in the way that students are set much free in the schools and this case leads to discipline problems.should be provided with the information about his rights --1 Child's awareness should be raised 1 --Self-Confidence confidence should be provided --4 the limit for confidence should not be exceeded -2 Education should be provided in accordance with the age and need -In Table 6, the subjects and categories regarding the answers to which the prospective teachers have given on how the rights of the child should be in the schools are involved.As it is seen in the Table 6, prospective preschool teachers have mentioned that it should be shown respect to the rights of the children in the (f=16), it should be enabled that the child feels himself valued in the school (f=3).Prospective primary school teachers have stated that raising the awareness of children (f=6) and making contribution to the child's individuality in the schools are required (f=6).Prospective social studies teachers have addressed that instilling self-confidence to the child (f=6), supporting child's individuality (f=3) and showing respect to child's individual rights (f=4) in the schools are required.When it is evaluated in general, as related to the rights of the child in schools, it is seen that prospective teachers have encouraging opinions and attitudes towards the implementation of children's rights in the schools.Since child is a valuable being, it has been seen that they support the moves to be made in line with paying necessary attention to and protecting the rights of the child.
Table 7. Opinions for the activities to make children's rights comprehended (f) Family's practice

Enabling the family participation 2 --
Training should be given to the family 1 -5 The houses should be visited in groups --2 Awarenessraising That differences are natural should be explained -1 0 That rights are equal should be explained 1 --That the child is free should be explained -1 2 The awareness of public should be raised 1 --

Legal facilities
A point of contact to which children can reach should be available --1 Penal sanction should exist --2 20 th November should be included in the school curricula 1 --

Self-expressing environments
In Table 7, the subjects and categories regarding the answers to which the prospective teachers have given for the activities in order to make the rights of the children comprehended are involved.As it is seen in the Table 7, prospective preschool teachers have indicated that the comprehension of child's rights will be realized by means of in-class and out-of-class activities (f=14), and mass media (f=6).As for prospective primary school teachers, the prominent category becomes again the necessity of carrying out in and out-of-class activities (f=12), the category of mass media (f=3) has followed this and awareness-raising (f=2) has come after this category.
Prospective social studies teachers have brought forward the idea that the comprehension of child's rights will mostly be realized by in and out-of-class activities (f=11), and respectively, mass media category (f=7) and legal facilities category (f=3) have followed this.Considering generally, it is seen that prospective teachers hold similar opinions on the activities to be carried out for making the child's rights comprehended.These answers have revealed as reaching the large masses in general.

Conclusion and Discussion
According to the findings on equality among children, prospective teachers' opinions are in the way that equality among students does not exist, various conditions like being disabled and individual differences lead to the inequality, and the equality should only stand for the right to education.When the literature was reviewed, information supporting this result of the study performed by the prospective teachers has been found.They state that children should be equal in terms of right to be educated.Education institutions are open to everyone without discriminating in respect to language, race, sex or religion.In education, to anyone, any family, community or class, privilege is not granted.This fundamental allows everyone to get equal educational opportunity as based on his ability and interest (Basic Law of National Education numbered 1739).The State must ensure the right to education and educational equalization (Constitution of the Republic of Turkey, 1982).
In a study carried out in New Zealand, it has been emphasized that the issue of children's rights falls behind the other studies and the state must take some precautions concerning this (One, 2015).
In conclusion, it has been inferred that corrupted personalities will develop in case of the violation of children's rights, and this will cause to a corrupted society.In respect thereof, Aral and Gürsoy (2001) state that children to be raised as responsible, conscious and qualified individuals correspond to the present and future of the society.
In accordance with the findings obtained from the research, the all prospective teachers have stated that they regard the child at an important position within the family in terms of the practice of children's rights in the families, but the families do not exercise due care to the children's rights.Additionally, it has been seen that prospective teachers have negative opinions as to the exercise of children's rights within the family.Prospective teachers are sensitive in respect of the development of children's rights.According to them, it is required for the families to realize that child is also an individual and to protect the rights of the child and show respect to the child's opinions.A successful education of child rights requires the participation of not only teachers but also families (Özdemir-Uluç, 2008).Beside this, the protection of children is considered as a duty pertaining to the family (Kaya, 2011).If the children's opinions are not asked, and they are not included in decision-making process, they are deprived of vital information and views (Akyüz, 2000).The results of this study carried out with the prospective teachers are compatible with the literature.The prospective teachers participated in the study have also emphasized the requirement for exercising due care to the rights of the child.
In the research, two types of points of view have been encountered in regard to the implementation of children's rights in the schools.The first of these is child rights' not being exercised by due care in the schools and the other one is in the way that students are set much free in the schools and this case leads to discipline problems.It has been identified that prospective teachers disagree on this matter.They have encouraging opinions and attitudes towards the implementation of child rights in the schools.According to the prospective teachers, child is a valuable being and necessary attention and due care should be paid to the child.The result that they support the moves to be made in line with the protection of the rights of the child has been seen.To create a culture in the schools, in which the rights of the child are respected is highly important.The primary principle of school system is to be respectful to the child's integrity.Schools should be places where the respect culture embracing all the children develops, in terms of both their official curriculum and modes of administration.Subjects related to the rights of the child should be included to a great extent in the school programs (Özdemir-Uluç, 2008).The results of the study done with the prospective teachers are consonant with the literature.The prospective teachers have stated that discipline problems are experienced, but an effective child's rights education will enable child show respect his environment, too.
As based on the findings for the activities required to be carried out on enabling individual to aware and comprehend the rights of the child, it is seen that prospective teachers have agreed and given similar answers.
These answers have generally revealed as reaching the large masses by mass media and raising the awareness of families by means in activities like seminar, and etc. Media is a significant and powerful means in ensuring popular opinion and mass sentiment on the education of child's rights and in forcing policymakers to take the action (Özdemir-Uluç, 2008;Kaya, 2010).An answer for which the prospective teachers have found a common ground is the mass media.For instance, in a research carried out in Singapore, it is said that television is a significant agent on child's rights.Another result is the organization of activities like seminar, in order to raise the awareness of families.Kaya (2010) has stated that exercising periodical training and seminars for the parents, as well as the family participation-based programs on child's rights, would play an essential role in raising the awareness of family.Patrick (2003) states that democracy education is required to be given through events and activities for all ages gradually from the preschool to higher education.Thus, education for child's rights should be included in the preschool period.Darling (2004) also emphasizes that drama and story activities are benefited in the education of human rights.Furthermore, studies including certain activities on teaching the rights of the child are available.Alabaş (2012), in the activity included in his study, has aimed to enable the competency for evaluating the necessity and development of child's rights in legal, historical and ethical terms gained, on the basis of historical documents.
Based on the above results obtained from the current study, teacher training institutions should be positioned as the center of children's rights.Teacher training and education for the rights of the child should be integrated since teachers are responsible from teaching and educating children, and the education process also includes educating children for their rights.Moreover, "Foster-Parents Services" can be extended by taking into consideration that child's mental health has a very important effect upon his life and personality.Legislative regulations should be enforced to ensure the national press and media broadcast for raising the public awareness on child's rights.The law and legal practices related to unguarded children, children with special needs, and working children can be brought in compliance with the rights of the child.
Accordingly, it has been asked for prospective teachers to give answers to the questions of what the children's rights are like in the family and how they should be, what they are like in the school and how they should be, what sort of activities to be carried out for the rights of the child, the matter of children's equality and what will happen in case children's rights are violated.

Table 2 .
Opinions on violation of children's rights (f)

Table 3 .
Opinions concerning what the children's rights are in the family (f)

Table 4 .
Opinions concerning how children's rights should be in the family (f)

Table 5 .
Opinions concerning what the children's rights are in the school (f)

Table 6 .
Opinions concerning how children's rights should be in the school (f)