ANALYSIS OF POSTGRADUATE THESES PREPARED FOR THE PRESCHOOL PERIOD ON “ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION” CONDUCTED BETWEEN 2011 AND 2020 IN TURKEY: A CONTENT ANALYSIS

Abstract

This study was conducted to analyze postgraduate theses in the field of environmental education in preschool education in Turkey between 2011 and 2020 in terms of their distribution, levels (doctorate, master’s), sample groups, and data collection tools. To establish the theses written in the field, the Higher Education Council National Thesis Centre database was reviewed on April 16th, 2020. Care was taken to determine postgraduate theses according to the criteria of having been conducted on environmental education with preschool children, preschool teachers/prospective preschool teachers and families, having been conducted on the subject area of education and training, having been registered to YÖK National Thesis Centre with permission for access. In line with these criteria, a total of 12 postgraduate theses were included in the study. The data were accessed using the document analysis technique. Detailed information about the postgraduate theses was collected using a “Postgraduate Thesis Examination Form.” Postgraduate theses included in the study were examined under the headings of thesis year, thesis type, objective, study group, methods, and designs, and data collection tools and frequency (f) were used in the analysis of data. When the distribution of postgraduate theses studies was conducted in terms of thesis type, it was found that the number of masters’ theses (n=8) was much higher than the number of doctoral theses (n=4), there was a large increase in the number of theses in 2015, the theses were mostly doctoral (n=3), and children mostly featured in the postgraduate thesis studies conducted within the specified dates..