PRIMARY SCHOOL 4TH GRADE STUDENTS’ OPINIONS OF CONSCIOUS CONSUMERISM

Primary education is an important step in formal education.In this step, social studies are one of the subjects that teach students matters relatedto life. Social studies are based on a variety of disciplines (Doğanay, 2002). One ofthese disciplines is economy. Economy is an indispensable part of human life. Oneof the most significant common traits of individuals is that they are all consumers(Ferman, 1993). Students implicitly or explicitly play a role in consumption andthey maintain their role in consumption when they become adults. This fact makesthe students’ opinions regarding conscious consumption important. The primaryobjective of this study is set so as to find out 4th grade students’ opinions of conscious consumerism. For this purpose, the answers of the questions below wereseeked; (i) which characteristics do a conscious consumer have? (ii) As a consumerwhat do you pay attention to when you are shopping?Method: The study is based on phenomenology, a qualitative study design.Studies on revealing and interpreting individual opinions and perspectives about acertain phenomenon are generally defined as phenomenology (Yıldırım and Simşek,2006). The purpose of this study is to introduce the opinions of primary school 4thgrade students regarding conscious consumerism. The study group of this studyconsisted of a total of 21 students, including 8 female students and 13 malestudents, receiving education in Sakarya, Adapazarı in 2010-2011 educationalyear. The data acquired from students was analyzed by the content analysismethod.A semi-structured interview form was designed following a review of literature. Insemi-structured interviews, questions are predetermined and an attempt is made tocollect data through those questions (Karasar, 2005). The questions in theinterview form which is prepared by researchers are structured so as to reveal thestudents’ opinions regarding conscious consumerism. Two specialists in the fieldwere consulted about the content validity of the questions in the interview formand in accordance with the suggestions of the specialists necessary corrections weremade. The interview form was finalized after six students were interviewed inorder to control whether they understood the questions in the form or not. Theinterview form included these questions; (i) Which characteristics do you think aconscious consumer has? (ii) As a consumer what do you pay attention to whenyou are shopping?Resultsi. The result of the research showed that the students have knowledge about thecharacteristics of a conscious consumer. The students stated that theconscious consumer should have consumer responsibility consciousness,quality consciousness, budget-cost consciousness.ii. When the opinions of the students, who took part in the research, regardingtheir own consumer responsibility consciousness, quality consciousness,budget-cost consciousness were analyzed, it was found out that the studentshave enough knowledge about the subject and regard themselves asconscious consumers.Discussion and Conclusion: The students stated that the conscious consumershould have consumer responsibility consciousness, quality consciousness, budgetcostconsciousness. This finding was regarded as significant in the sense that“From Production to Consume” unit in Social Science Programs of primary school4th grade raises the students’ awareness of conscious consumerism. This result shows parallelism with the study conducted by Sağlam (2010). The researcher inquestion states in his study of conscious consumerism that the students got highscores from the scale. Besides, in their study Makela and Peters (2004) indicatethat consumer education has a positive impact on students’ awareness of consumerrights and responsibilities. In addition; in his study, Ekström (2007) found out thatthe children influence their parents through their knowledge they obtained atschool about consumerism. This finding shows the importance of students’ havingknowledge about consumerism.When the opinions of the students, who took part in the research, regarding theirown consumer responsibility consciousness, quality consciousness, budget-costconsciousness were analyzed, it was found out that the students have enoughknowledge about the subject and regard themselves as conscious consumers. Thisresult indicates that the students pay attention to their budgets. In his researchconcerning the effect of drama method on conscious consumerism level, Malbeleği(2011) found out that the total points of the test group students are higher than thecontrol group students and this result made no difference statistically. Ata (2009)states that in Kayseri a fourth grade students’ receiving the 9th TraditionalConsumer Rights Award as a conscious consumer is a significant indicator.The study concluded that the students that took part in the research have accurateknowledge about conscious consumerism and that their own opinions of consciousconsumerism are at a high level. This result is important in terms of revealing thatthe students, who participate in consumption either directly or by influencing theirparents and thus have a significant place in consumption, have competenceregarding conscious consumerism. The results of this research can be comparedwith other researches that are to be done by using different methods.