Examination of social studies teachers opinions about the place and importance of cultural geography in social studies course

This study aims to investigate the level of knowledge of cultural geography by Social Studies teachers and the level of cultural geography in the Social Studies course and this study was conducted using qualitative research techniques and phenomenology design was used. Descriptive analysis methods were used in the examination of the data. This study was carried out with 50 Social Studies teachers working in 40 secondary schools in Ankara during the 2021-2022 academic year. A semi-structured interview form consisting of 10 questions, together with sub-questions for the first three questions, a total of 16 open-ended questions has been developed for Social Studies teachers to answer. These questions are based on the problem sentence and subproblems. Based on the written answers to the questions, repeated opinions were determined, and these opinions were made into a theme and interpreted together with frequency and percentage values. According to the results obtained from this research, it has been concluded that cultural geography is not known at a sufficient level by Social Studies teachers. In addition to the impact of geography on culture, it has been observed that the perspectives of the teachers on the influence of culture on geography are often limited. There was a higher percentage of instructors who stated that climatic and geographic factors had an impact on culture. It has been observed that a significant part of the Social Studies teachers mentioned that the geographical effects and the effect of geographical features on culture were highlighted more when cultural geography was discussed in the Social Studies lecture. Cultural geography is not a unit in the Social Studies lecture, but it stands out because it is an implicitly covered topic, particularly in the "Culture and Heritage" unit. In the current situation, examining 4, 5, 6, and 7. grade Social Studies textbooks, it has been one of the aims of the research to determine at what level cultural geography is included and which subjects are more associated. In particular, it has been observed that cultural geography has been mentioned more in the units such as "My Country, My Culture and My History", "Where We Live", "Production to Consumption", and "Population in our Country". According to the opinions of Social Studies teachers, it has been observed that there is a majority of those stated that cultural geography should be considered as a separate topic in the Social Studies lecture. In this study, it was revealed that teachers have the opinion that cultural geography is not dealt with at an adequate level in the Social Studies course; they made suggestions that cultural geography can be taught more effectively through doing-living learning, sightseeing-observation, visual materials, speech ring, drama, research-examination. Cultural geography is a field that is quite comprehensive and extensive contents. In this regard, if it can be taught more effectively, enhanced with visual themes in the Social Studies course, and handled as a new unit title, it will be easier for students to understand, and people who know and like both their geography and culture better will be raised.