In the age of technology, where we live so intertwined with the media, it is necessary to know the advantages that the media can offer and the problems that may arise when it is misused. This is possible with media literacy. The level of knowledge about media literacy of the elementary school teacher, who has the greatest responsibility in children’s media interaction after the family, and the way they use media literacy in the classroom are decisive in children’s media interactions. In this study, elementary school teachers’ views on the media, how they define media literacy, what kind of classroom practices they carry out for media literacy, and what they recommend for a more qualified media literacy education were investigated. In this study, which adopted a basic qualitative research method, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a total of 14 teachers from 7 geographical regions of Türkiye, 1 female and 1 male teacher from each region. The data obtained from the semi-structured interviews were subjected to content analysis and findings were obtained. This study reveals that elementary school teachers are familiar with some advantages and disadvantages of the media, but their knowledge about media literacy is low and their classroom media literacy practices are inadequate. Teachers stated that in order to provide a more qualified media literacy education, they themselves need media literacy training first. In addition, they emphasized that media literacy education for children should start at the elementary school level and that this education should include both contents that attract the attention of children and interactive applications.
Cite this article as: Kargın, T., & Demir, R. (2023). Media literacy in elementary school from the perspective of elementary school teachers. HAYEF: Journal of Education, 20(2), 148-158.