International Association of Educators   |  ISSN: 1949-4270   |  e-ISSN: 1949-4289

Original article | Educational Policy Analysis and Strategic Research 2021, Vol. 16(3) 150-166

The COVID-19 Pandemic: Teacher Candidates’ Views regarding the Virus and Vaccination Process

Muhammed Salman, Mustafa Öztürk Akcaoğlu & Muammer Ergün

pp. 150 - 166   |  DOI: https://doi.org/10.29329/epasr.2021.373.9   |  Manu. Number: MANU-2102-11-0009.R1

Published online: September 20, 2021  |   Number of Views: 96  |  Number of Download: 470


Abstract

In order for societies to normalize in educational, economic, social and mental health areas, the COVID-19 pandemic must be ended as soon as possible. Currently, the most critical factor in eliminating the pandemic seems to be the vaccine. Vaccination is one of the most successful public health interventions and is a cornerstone for communicable disease prevention. Both current teachers and teacher candidates should be competent in the field of health literacy as well as in the education and training process. In this study, we tried to reveal the views of teacher candidates regarding COVID-19 and its vaccines based on the studies reporting that anti-vaccination increased in individuals with more education. Six hundred thirty-eight teacher candidates participated in the study. The research data were collected through an 11-item questionnaire, and the data were analyzed using descriptive and cross-tabulation analyzes. Research findings mainly showed that vaccine acceptance was low, and most of the participants thought the virus is artificial. Another finding of the research revealed that most of the participants who complied with all the rules regarding COVID-19 did not get the virus; however, it was seen that nearly all of the participants who caught COVID-19 had an infected individual in their family. Given the importance of vaccination, measures should be taken for vaccination hesitation and rejection.

Keywords: Teacher Candidates, Vaccine Hesitation, Vaccine Rejection, COVID-19 Pandemic


How to Cite this Article?

APA 6th edition
Salman, M., Akcaoglu, M.O. & Ergun, M. (2021). The COVID-19 Pandemic: Teacher Candidates’ Views regarding the Virus and Vaccination Process . Educational Policy Analysis and Strategic Research, 16(3), 150-166. doi: 10.29329/epasr.2021.373.9

Harvard
Salman, M., Akcaoglu, M. and Ergun, M. (2021). The COVID-19 Pandemic: Teacher Candidates’ Views regarding the Virus and Vaccination Process . Educational Policy Analysis and Strategic Research, 16(3), pp. 150-166.

Chicago 16th edition
Salman, Muhammed, Mustafa Ozturk Akcaoglu and Muammer Ergun (2021). "The COVID-19 Pandemic: Teacher Candidates’ Views regarding the Virus and Vaccination Process ". Educational Policy Analysis and Strategic Research 16 (3):150-166. doi:10.29329/epasr.2021.373.9.

References
  1. Akdeniz, G., Kavakci, M., Gozugok, M., Yalcinkaya, S., Kucukay, A., & Sahutogullari, B. (2020). A survey of attitudes, anxiety Status, and protective behaviors of the university students during the COVID-19 outbreak in Turkey. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 11(695), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00695 [Google Scholar] [Crossref] 
  2. Andre, F. E., Booy, R., Bock, H. L., Clemens, J., Datta, S. K., John, T. J., Lee, B. W., Lolekha, S., Peltola, H., & Ruff, T. (2008). Vaccination greatly reduces disease, disability, death and inequity worldwide. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 86, 140-146. https://doi.org/10.2471/BLT.07.040089 [Google Scholar] [Crossref] 
  3. Barello, S., Nania, T., Dellafiore, F., Graffigna, G., & Caruso, R. (2020). 'Vaccine hesitancy among university students in Italy during the COVID-19 pandemic. European Journal of Epidemiology, 35(8), 781-783. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-020-00670-z [Google Scholar] [Crossref] 
  4. Bish, A., & Michie, S. (2010). Demographic and attitudinal determinants of protective behaviours during a pandemic: A review. British Journal of Health Psychology, 15(4), 797-824. https://doi.org/10.1348/135910710X485826 [Google Scholar] [Crossref] 
  5. Bursalı, O. (2020). Süper bulaştırıcı virüs, Türkiye’de var mı, aşılar iptal olur mu, daha tehlikeli mi? Cumhuriyet. https://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/yazarlar/orhan-bursali/super-bulastirici-virus-turkiyede-var-mi-asilar-iptal-olur-mu-daha-tehlikeli-mi-1800436 [Google Scholar]
  6. Cable News Network. (2020). Online petition urges a SoCal school district to close due to coronavirus outbreak. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/04/us/coronavirus-school-district-petition-trnd/index.html [Google Scholar]
  7. Cengizhan, S. (2021). The Effects of COVID-19 Process on Time Management of Foreign Language Teacher Candidates. Educational Policy Analysis and Strategic Research, 16(2), 295-312. [Google Scholar]
  8. Chesser, A., Drassen Ham, A., & Keene Woods, N. (2020). Assessment of COVID-19 Knowledge Among University Students: Implications for Future Risk Communication Strategies. Health Education and Behavior, 47(4), 540-543. https://doi.org/10.1177/1090198120931420  [Google Scholar] [Crossref] 
  9. Chou, W.-Y. S., Gaysynsky, A., & Vanderpool, R. C. The COVID-19 misinfodemic: Moving beyond fact-checking. Health Education and Behavior, 48(1), 9-13. https://doi.org/10.1177/1090198120980675  [Google Scholar] [Crossref] 
  10. Craven, J. (2020). COVID-19 vaccine tracker. Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society. https://www.raps.org/news-and-articles/news-articles/2020/3/covid-19-vaccine-tracker [Google Scholar]
  11. Dredze, M., Broniatowski, D. A., Smith, M. C., & Hilyard, K. M. (2016). Understanding Vaccine Refusal: Why We Need Social Media Now. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 50(4), 550-552. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2015.10.002  [Google Scholar] [Crossref] 
  12. Dror, A. A., Eisenbach, N., Taiber, S., Morozov, N. G., Mizrachi, M., Zigron, A., Srouji, S., & Sela, E. (2020). Vaccine hesitancy: the next challenge in the fight against COVID-19. European Journal of Epidemiology, 35(8), 775-779. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-020-00671-y  [Google Scholar] [Crossref] 
  13. Erdem, A. K. (2020). Kovid-19 aşı anketi sonuçlandı. Independent Türkçe. Retrieved 08.12 from https://bit.ly/3gJCGVB [Google Scholar]
  14. Frenkel, S., Alba, D., & Zhong, R. (2020). Surge of virus misinformation stumps Facebook and Twitter. The New York Times. https://www.bridgeportedu.net/cms/lib/CT02210097/Centricity/Domain/3754/Costello_Journalism_11_3_23.3_31.pdf [Google Scholar]
  15. Harapan, H., Wagner, A. L., Yufika, A., Winardi, W., Anwar, S., Gan, A. K., Setiawan, A. M., Rajamoorthy, Y., Sofyan, H., & Mudatsir, M. (2020). Acceptance of a COVID-19 Vaccine in Southeast Asia: A Cross-Sectional Study in Indonesia. Frontiers in Public Health, 8, 381-381. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.00381  [Google Scholar] [Crossref] 
  16. Hurriyet Newspaper. (2020). Prof. Dr. Muhammed Emin Akkoyunlu: Çin aşısı ikinci tip koronavirüste daha avantajlı olabilir. Hürriyet. https://www.hurriyet.com.tr/gundem/prof-dr-muhammed-emin-akkoyunlu-cin-asisi-ikinci-tip-koronaviruste-daha-avantajli-olabilir-41695166 [Google Scholar]
  17. Koca, D. F. (2020, December 22). Ev içi bulaşma oranı. Anadolu Ajansı. https://www.aa.com.tr/tr/koronavirus/bakan-koca-kovid-19da-ev-ici-bulasma-oranlarinin-yuzde-85e-yukseldigini-acikladi/2085572 [Google Scholar]
  18. Lazarus, J. V., Ratzan, S. C., Palayew, A., Gostin, L. O., Larson, H. J., Rabin, K., Kimball, S., & El-Mohandes, A. (2020). A global survey of potential acceptance of a COVID-19 vaccine. Nature Medicine, 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-1124-9 [Google Scholar] [Crossref] 
  19. Nguyen, A., & Catalan, D. (2020). Digital mis/disinformation and public engagement with health and science controversies: fresh perspectives from Covid-19. Media Communication, 8(2), 323-328. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v8i2.3352 [Google Scholar] [Crossref] 
  20. Olaimat, A. N., Aolymat, I., Elsahoryi, N., Shahbaz, H. M., Holley, R. A., & hygiene. (2020). Attitudes, anxiety, and behavioral practices regarding COVID-19 among university students in Jordan: A cross-sectional study. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine, 103(3), 1177-1183. https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.20-0418 [Google Scholar] [Crossref] 
  21. Özceylan, G., Toprak, D., & Esen, E. S. (2020). Vaccine rejection and hesitation in Turkey. Human Vaccines Immunotherapeutics, 16(5), 1034-1039. https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2020.1717182 [Google Scholar] [Crossref] 
  22. Pennycook, G., McPhetres, J., Zhang, Y., Lu, J. G., & Rand, D. G. (2020). Fighting COVID-19 misinformation on social media: Experimental evidence for a scalable accuracy-nudge intervention. Psychological Science, 31(7), 770-780. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620939054 [Google Scholar] [Crossref] 
  23. Puri, N., Coomes, E. A., Haghbayan, H., & Gunaratne, K. (2020). Social media and vaccine hesitancy: new updates for the era of COVID-19 and globalized infectious diseases. Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics, 16(11), 2586-2593. https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2020.1780846  [Google Scholar] [Crossref] 
  24. Reiter, P. L., Pennell, M. L., & Katz, M. L. (2020). Acceptability of a COVID-19 vaccine among adults in the United States: How many people would get vaccinated? Vaccine, 38(42), 6500-6507. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2020.08.043 [Google Scholar] [Crossref] 
  25. Rieger, M. O. (2020). COVID-19 Conspiracy Beliefs among Students in China and Germany–Causes and Effects. (Working Paper). uni-trier.de/fileadmin/fb4/prof/BWL/FIN/Files/conpiracies3.pdf [Google Scholar]
  26. Rieger, M. O., & He-Ulbricht, Y. (2020). German and Chinese dataset on attitudes regarding COVID-19 policies, perception of the crisis, and belief in conspiracy theories. Data in Brief, 33, 106384. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2020.106384  [Google Scholar] [Crossref] 
  27. Salali, G. D., & Uysal, M. S. (2020). COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is associated with beliefs on the origin of the novel coronavirus in the UK and Turkey. Psychological Medicine, 1-3. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291720004067  [Google Scholar] [Crossref] 
  28. Salerno, M., Mizio, G. D., Montana, A., & Pomara, C. (2019). To be or not to be vaccinated? That is the question among Italian healthcare workers: a medico-legal perspective. Future Medicine, 14(9s), 51-54. https://doi.org/10.2217/fmb-2018-0241  [Google Scholar] [Crossref] 
  29. Signorelli, C., Iannazzo, S., & Odone, A. (2018). The imperative of vaccination put into practice. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 18(1), 26-27. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(17)30696-5 [Google Scholar] [Crossref] 
  30. Synnott, C. K. (2020). College students' COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. The Journal of Higher Education Management, 36(1). https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3753756 [Google Scholar] [Crossref] 
  31. Tustin, J. L., Crowcroft, N. S., Gesink, D., Johnson, I., Keelan, J., & Lachapelle, B. (2018). User-Driven Comments on a Facebook Advertisement Recruiting Canadian Parents in a Study on Immunization: Content Analysis [Original Paper]. JMIR Public Health Surveill, 4(3), e10090. https://doi.org/10.2196/10090  [Google Scholar] [Crossref] 
  32. Wang, C., Pan, R., Wan, X., Tan, Y., Xu, L., McIntyre, R. S., Choo, F. N., Tran, B., Ho, R., Sharma, V. K., & Ho, C. (2020). A longitudinal study on the mental health of general population during the COVID-19 epidemic in China. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 87, 40-48. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2020.04.028  [Google Scholar] [Crossref] 
  33. World Health Organization. (2019). Top ten threats to global health in 2019. https://www.who.int/emergencies/ten-threats-to-global-health-in-2019 [Google Scholar]
  34. World Health Organization. (2020). Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Situation Report–126. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200525-covid-19-sitrep-126.pdf?sfvrsn=887dbd66_2 [Google Scholar]
  35. Yalçın, S. (2020). Mutasyon kafada olmalı. Sözcü. https://www.sozcu.com.tr/2020/yazarlar/soner-yalcin/mutasyon-kafada-olmali-6177382/?utm_source=gazeteoku&utm_medium=referral [Google Scholar]
  36. Yükseköğretim Kurulu. (2018). Yeni öğretmen yetiştirme lisans programları. Yükseköğretim Kurulu. https://www.yok.gov.tr/kurumsal/idari-birimler/egitim-ogretim-dairesi/yeni-ogretmen-yetistirme-lisans-programlari [Google Scholar]