Role of School Bus Services as a Complementary Element of the Education Process in Hidden Curriculum: School Services Drives' Opinions

Aims: The aim of this study is to reveal the views of school bus drivers who perform school bus services as a complementary element of the education process within the scope of the hidden curriculum.

Methodology: This study is of qualitative research type. In this study, in-depth and detailed information was collected by interviewing a sufficient number of school bus drivers with the interview method. In this study, convenience sampling technique, one of the random sampling methods, was utilized. Ten willing and volunteer school bus drivers who provide shuttle service in a public primary school in Ankara participated in the study. Interview technique was utilized in the study. Interviews were conducted using a semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher. In the analysis of the data, content analysis technique was used by going through the basic stages. The main categories in the analysis were day, task/responsibility, purpose, behavior, communication, interaction, problem and general. Subcategories were also used.

Results: At the end of the research, more than half of the school bus drivers who provided school bus services in the hidden curriculum process stated that their aim was economic conditions and making a living, while about one third stated that they aimed to provide a happy and peaceful transportation service. Most of the school bus drivers face many problems related to students and traffic. As suggestions, school bus drivers want informative meetings to be organized for parents, to be valued, to be educated, tolerant and well-intentioned, and to give priority to school buses in traffic. In this regard, it can be suggested that meetings be held at the beginning and end of the semester and that interviews be held with students, administrators, teachers and parents, who are the other elements of this process.