Examination of Main Trends in Geographical Education Research in Turkey

Abstract

The main purpose of the present study is to examine the main tendencies of the articles published in the field of geography education between the years of 2008 and 2018 in Turkey. Within the scope of this purpose, this study examined the subject fields, research methods, data collection tools, data analysis techniques and sampling methods used in the geography education studies in the journals scanned by the SSCI, ESCI and ULAKBIM social sciences databases in Turkey. The study used the document analysis method, one of the qualitative research methods. The study evaluated 224 articles determined according to the purposeful sampling method from the related databases by using the Geography Education Article Classification Form (GEACF) and then analyzed the obtained pieces of data by using the content analysis method and finally made some interpretations. According to the findings of the study, in the last ten years in Turkey, the highest number of articles were published in 2010 (n=33) and the lowest number of articles were published in 2017 (n=13). It was also observed that, in the field of geography education, the highest number of articles were published in the Marmara Geography Journal; however, in the journals scanned in SSCI, a total of (n=17) articles were published in the last ten years. Moreover, the studies were also determined to show more interest in the subject areas of teacher training and learning/teaching; questionnaires and scales were generally used as a data collection tool; the frequency/percentage and content analysis methods were preferred in the analysis of data; quantitative and qualitative methods were generally used in studies on geography education; on the contrary, mixed methods were less frequently used.