Saying It as a Teacher: Role, Audience and the Expression of Conspiracy Beliefs Among Pre-Service Teachers

This record contains the research data and study materials for the manuscript Saying It as a Teacher: Role, Audience and the Expression of Conspiracy Beliefs Among Pre-Service Teachers (Uygur & Çinpolat; manuscript under peer review). The study is a qualitative multiple-case study of how pre-service Turkish-language teachers in Türkiye expressed conspiracy-related positions as their role and audience changed. Study design. Twenty-three undergraduate pre-service Turkish-language teachers (15 women, 8 men; aged 20–25 years) at a state university in Türkiye completed the Generic Conspiracist Beliefs Scale (GCBS; 15 items, 5-point scale) and wrote free-format responses to four published Turkish-language conspiracist texts (on the Moon landing, COVID-19 and vaccination, global warming, and aircraft trails). One week later, four volunteers each taught a role-played fifth-grade Turkish lesson in which adult peers acting as pupils raised scripted objections; each teacher was then questioned in a staged corridor exchange and joined a focus group. The qualitative data were analysed with reflexive thematic analysis; GCBS scores were used only descriptively. Files gcbs_deidentified.csv – de-identified GCBS responses (P01–P23). gcbs_variable_codebook.csv – variable codebook for the GCBS data. Supporting_Information_S1_Codebook.xlsx – qualitative coding codebook. Deidentified_qualitative_data.zip – de-identified written and oral data. Texts.rar – reading texts and study materials. All materials and data are in Turkish. Pseudonyms and participant codes are used throughout. Access. Participants were promised confidentiality, consent did not cover public data sharing, and the small cohort from a single programme makes re-identification likely even after de-identification. Access to the files is therefore restricted. Ethics. The study was approved by the Ordu University Rectorate Education Research Ethics Committee (Decision No. 2026-108, 24 April 2026) and was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. All participants gave written informed consent. Funding. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.