Abstract:
Purposes The purpose of this research were 1. to study secondary school social studies teachers opinions concerning their roles in community development in social, economic, educational and political aspects. 2. to study secondary school social studies teachers opinions concerning their roles in developing the community values on students such as ethical and traditional values ,devotion and responsibility. 3. to study secondary school social studies teachers opinions concerning community problems. 4. to study secondary school social studies teachers opinions concerning the ways to solve these problems. Procedures A set of questionnaires, consisting of three types; multiple choice, rating scale-and open-ended questions was constructed and sent to 285 social studies teachers in 24 government secondary schools in educational region eight. Ninety-four point thirty-nine percent of questionnaires was returned and then being analyzed by means of percentage, arithmetic means and standard deviations and presented in tables with explanation. Results 1.The social studies teachers' opinions concerning their roles in community development in social, economic, education.1 and political areas were apparently at moderate level on the following aspects: the roles in family planning, community development in occupations, education, communication, community health and community security as well. But the social studies teachers' opinions were appeared to be at high level on supporting democracy, making people understand the duty of government, giving knowledge by writing, speaking and researching about being good community members, acting as a medium between people and government, encouraging people to use their rights and duties as good citizens, cooperating with parents to teach students to be economical, influencing students to be responsible, making solid relationship between students and their community and encouraging the people to use community resources carefully. 2. Regarding the roles in developing community values on students, social studies teachers expressed their opinions at high level such as responsibility, devotion , rationality, deligence, self-improvement., confidence in democracy, respect in individual ability and innovation. utilization. 3. The social studies teachers also expressed their opinions at high level concerning community problems in social, economic, educational and political aspects. 4. The social studies teachers suggested that community problems were local so it should be their responsibility to solve the problems by themselves with the government's help. The best way to solve community problems was to educate people both formally and informally. The social studies teachers also expressed that less work load would enable them in community development. There were many ways to develop their community especially by education, and psychological encouragement. The main obstacles expressed by the teachers were a lack of time, chance, encouragement from the superiors and government, and also a lack of money as well. Being nonlocal people was another obstacle of the social studies teachers' roles in community development.