Examination of the Academic Status of Geography Education in Turkish Higher Education According to the Opions of Faculty Members

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine the views of faculty members who have studies in the field of geography education on research orientations in the field. Criterion sampling method, one of the purposeful sampling methods, was used to determine the sample of this research, which was carried out in the case study design within the qualitative research tradition. Accordingly, 33 faculty members who completed their doctorate 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 faculty members' views on research orientations in the field. Content analysis was used to analyze the data obtained. According to the findings of the study, 96 code expressions were generated from the opinions of the faculty members about the orientations in the field of geography education. These codes were then organized around three main themes: orientations, problems and expectations. The main theme of orientations consisted of the sub-themes of study topics, reasons for topic preferences, research orientations and influential events and phenomena; the main theme of problems consisted of the sub-themes of problems, rich literature and limited literature; and the main theme of expectations consisted of the sub-themes of future of the field and researcher profile.