THE OPINIONS OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS ON EUROPEAN UNION

The aim of this research is to determine the opinions of 8th grade students on the European Union (EU). The participants of the research consist of 124 8th grade students at 4 primary schools in Adana province. In order to choose the participants, cluster sampling and random sampling methods have been used in this study. Besides these, question forms and metaphor method have been used to collect data. In the analysis of the qualitative data, quantifying of the qualitative data and content analysis have been used. The results of the study have revealed that the students want EU membership of Turkey; however, they think that this membership will not happen. Furthermore, it has been found out that the students think that the most important problem which can be solved by EU membership of Turkey is unemployment, and the biggest difficulty for membership is bad country economy. Furthermore, the students have used queue metaphor mostly to refer to Turkey’s long membership process. Based on the findings of the study, it is suggested that more information about EU should be included in course books, in radio and TV programs for students, which will raise their consciousness on EU.