The interviews
were conducted in the months of July and August while the participants were in
summer school. Although the study does not claim that its findings are
generalizable to all prospective teachers, the selection of participants from
the group who attended summer school might have affected the research. In an
informal (unrecorded) conversation the students said that they were attending
summer school since they wanted to graduate early due to economic reasons.
Although I tried
to establish rapport with the participants and break the hierarchy in line with
the principals of feminist pedagogy, this might not have been possible with all
of the participants since they knew that I am an instructor at a university.
For example, they insistently called me ‘siz’ or ‘hocam’. I observed in some of
the participants the effort to give the ‘right’ or expected answer and from
time to time reminded them that there was no correct answer and I was
interested in their opinions.
One limitation
of the study has been the lack of elementary school teacher candidates for
social sciences. The study includes teacher candidates from departments of
Elementary Mathematics Education, Elementary Science Education, and Elementary
Teaching. There is an Elementary Social Science Education Department only at
Gazi University among the universities in the study. Participants from only one
university would not suffice to form a group so elementary social science
education was not included in the study.
