Digitizing and Interpreting the World Map Drawn by Kashgarli Mahmud: Constructing Information Using Evidence Based Political Literacy*

Abstract

In this study, a world map featured in Divan-ı Lugati't-Türk and drawn by Kashgarli Mahmud was made interactive through the use of Seyyah, a geographic information system (GIS) application developed in response to ADDIE, an instructional design teaching model. The geographical symbols and notes on the world map drawn by Kashgarli Mahmud were transferred to Seyyah's database so evidence-based learning could occur. The aim of the research is to evaluate the process of transforming the information obtained by the Social Studies teacher candidates with evidence into a jointly structured knowledge with the political literacy skill. The study is a qualitative action research project using a technical, scientific and collaborative approach. In this context, descriptive analysis was used to interpret the political literacy information which was interpreted and organized by Social Science teacher candidates into Seyyah's database. A standardized open-ended interview was conducted with the teacher candidates to detect the relationship between the use of Seyyah with evidence-based learning, political literacy and culture, the common structuring process and general status of information. Data from ten Social Science teacher candidates was analyzed by content analysis. The Social Science teacher candidates in the study were determined by the maximum diversity method which is a purposeful sampling method. According to the findings from Seyyah's database, Social Studies teacher candidates organized the political literacy information from the world map under four elements: cities; countries; regions and physical geography elements. There were three different categories of political knowledge in other geographical signs and nations themes. Findings obtained from the opinions of candidates show that Seyyah requires the use of high-level thinking skills in evidence-based learning to jointly structure political literacy information in a database, and present and evaluate Turkish culture in a different form.