Teacher approaches towards geopolitical concepts in social studies teaching in Türkiye (Sivas example)

In research content, necessary studies were carried out to examine the place of geopolitics in social studies education in the eyes of teachers, to see whether the results of geographical factors are processed efficiently in the educational environment and to develop suggestions for this, to see how teachers view geopolitical concepts and the effects of geopolitical events on Türkiye, and to reveal positive and negative situations in social studies education. In this study, a survey study, which is one of the quantitative research methods, was conducted .The data of the research were analysed in accordance with the steps of the survey design, which is one of the quantitative method designs. The sample of the study consists of social studies teachers working in 25 secondary schools in Sivas province in the 2022-2023 academic year. 66 social studies teachers take parted in the survey study. In the study, a 29-question questionnaire form it was used to reach the goal of observation. 25 questions were closed-ended and included the aims of the study. The first four questions were designed to determine the personal information of the participants. At the end of the research, 66 pages of questionnaire form was obtained. As a result of the research, it was concluded that geopolitics is a phenomenon that affects the fate of the country, there are not enough units and activities about Türkiye's geopolitics in the social studies curriculum, geopolitical elements are not sufficiently included, students have difficulty in assimilating the advantages and disadvantages of Türkiye's geography, and different methods can be effective in increasing students geopolitical awareness. In line with these findings, it is recommended to update the social studies curriculum in order to change students perspectives on geopolitics positively. Keywords: Geopolitics, Social Studies, Geography