Teacher Candidates' Views about Land Art in Geographical Education

Abstract

This study aims to present the views of teacher candidates about the use of Land Art in geographical education, which is an aesthetic application of spatial knowledge. The main reasons for the birth of this research relate to the lack of studies conducted on the use of Land Art practices in the educational environment, together with the idea that its use will contribute to geographical education. In the 2018 – 2019 academic year, during Spring semester, 23 teacher candidates participated in the study. This working group took the second grade mountain-geography elective course for a Social Studies teaching program at a Faculty of Education in a Turkish university. This research, in which teacher candidates worked in five separate groups to create a land art product, was conducted in the field at Niğde Aladağlar National Park-Emli Valley. At the end of the fieldwork, opinions of the teacher candidates about the land art activity were obtained through inviting their responses to an open-ended questionnaire. Descriptive analysis of the survey data reveal five separate categories including: ‘the status of participant knowledge about land art’; ‘land art, and formats able to make us of land art in the teaching of Geography in Social Studies’; ‘association of art with other disciplines’; ‘contribution of Land Art to the teaching of Geography in Social Studies’; and ‘Land Art that participants choose as an activity in their professional lives outside of school’. At the end of the field applications, each group filled out the Land Art Product Evaluation Form as the second data collection tool of the research. As a result of the findings obtained, it was observed for the first time that teacher candidates had knowledge about Land Art and its effectiveness in teaching. In the study, it was found that teacher candidates associated Land Art activities with nine courses: Geography; Art and aesthetics; History; Science; Anthropology; Social Studies; Sociology; Archaeology; and Philosophy. Based on results from the second data collection tool, teacher candidates evaluated Land Art activities as ‘very useful’ and ‘useful’ in educational environments. At the end of the study, it was observed that all teacher candidates would prefer Land Art activities in their professional lives for various reasons. such as providing permanent learning, providing a fun learning environment, and making the student an active and willing learner.