Opinions of University Students towards National and International Peace

The aim of the research is to examine the opinions of Turkish university students about national and international peace. The participants of the study are sixty volunteer university students from Ankara University Faculty of Educational Sciences, Department of Social Sciences Education and who have taken the citizenship course in the 2006-2007 academic years and will deliver citizenship education in elementary schools in the future. Participants’ opinions about peace were gathered through open-ended questions. Descriptive analysis, which is a qualitative research method, was used to analyze the views of social sciences teacher trainees. The results showed that the participants generally interpret national peace as national unity and peace of mind; international peace as betterment of international relations, and believe that barriers to national peace are rooted in reasons related to citizens, the government, and the other governments. They associated the reason for not establishing international peace largely to the competition that states are in to gain the world sources. Some of the participants find university students sensitive towards national and international peace while there are those who do not find them so sensitive. The participants suggested that activities and projects involving students be held in universities to make them more sensitive.