Geography education in Türkiye in the 100th year of the Republic: A case study

In our country, the number of studies on geography education has gradually increased with the transfer of teacher training institutions to universities. Analyzing the academic structure of this field, doctoral theses and research articles together with the opinions of faculty members who contribute to the field will enable researchers to be aware of the studies conducted. Evaluating the point reached in the research of geography education on the 100th anniversary of the Republic is of great importance in order to move forward with more confident steps towards the future. The aim of this study is to examine the academic structure of the geography department and geography education undergraduate programs in Türkiye in terms of various variables, to reveal the tendencies of theses and articles prepared in the field of geography education in terms of various variables, and to determine the opinions of academics who contribute to the field of geography education. Criterion sampling method, one of the purposeful sampling methods, was used to determine the sample of this study, which was conducted with the case study design within the qualitative research tradition. Accordingly, the data of the first sub-problem, which aims to examine the characteristics of 390 faculty members working in the geography department and geography education department in terms of various variables, were obtained from the YÖK Academic database. For the data of the second sub-problem, a total of 499 studies, including 102 doctoral theses in the National Thesis Center database and 397 research articles in the TR Index database, were accessed. In analyzing these studies, a content analysis guideline consisting of 40 questions, in which each question was evaluated as a theme, was used. Regarding the third sub-problem, 33 faculty members who completed their doctorate degrees in the field of geography or geography education and have studies on geography education constituted the participants of the study. A semi-structured interview form was used to determine the opinions of faculty members regarding research tendencies in the field. Descriptive analysis and content analysis were used to analyze the data obtained. According to the findings of the study, it was seen that faculty members were predominantly male (76%) in the gender variable and assistant professor doctors (41.79%) in the title variable. In addition, it was determined that the number of faculty members who completed their doctorate degrees between 2005-2014 (30%) was higher compared to other periods. In the distribution of faculty members according to the universities where they completed their doctorate degrees, it was determined that 70.51% of the faculty members completed their doctorate degrees at Istanbul, Ankara, Atatürk, Fırat, Marmara and Ege universities. It was seen that these well-established universities, which provide human resources to the field, also have high rates of internal nutrition. Most of the analyzed studies were conducted in 2013 (8.02%), in the province of Istanbul (16.38%), by male researchers (77.56%), in the article type (79.56%) and descriptive research design (55.11%) to examine assessment and evaluation issues (29.26%). A total of 96 code expressions were generated from the opinions of faculty members on tendencies in the field of geography education. These codes were then grouped under three main themes: tendencies, problems and expectations. According to the results of the study, it is understood that more studies prepared according to qualitative and mixed methods are needed in the field of geography education, in less studied subject areas and in different sample types. Keywords: The 100th anniversary of the Republic of Türkiye, Geography education, Case study, Higher education.