Research Trends in Montessori-Focused Postgraduate Theses in Türkiye (2020–2025): A Descriptive Document Analysis

Purpose: This study aimed to examine research trends in Montessori-focused postgraduate theses completed in Türkiye between 2020 and 2025 and to identify their disciplinary, methodological, and participant-related characteristics. Method: The study employed descriptive document analysis and was based on a thesis-level dataset constructed from full-text theses available through the National Thesis Center of the Council of Higher Education (YÖK). Duplicate records were removed, and all included theses were rechecked against their full texts. The final corpus consisted of 44 unique postgraduate theses. Relevant PRISMA-ScR principles informed the identification, eligibility assessment, and reporting process to enhance transparency. Findings: Of the 44 theses, 39 were master’s theses (88.6%) and five were doctoral dissertations (11.4%). Education Sciences constituted the largest disciplinary field (n = 21, 47.7%), followed by Architecture/Design (n = 9, 20.5%) and Health/Psychology/Child Development (n = 6, 13.6%). The highest number of theses were completed in 2021 (n = 11) and 2023 (n = 10). Among studies involving human participants, teachers/educators and preschool or early-childhood children were the most frequently represented groups, while some theses focused on buildings, products, documents, and other non-human units of analysis. Qualitative research was the most common methodological approach, followed by experimental, quasi-experimental, and single-subject studies; document-, design-, architectural-, and meta-analytic studies; mixed-method studies; and survey, correlational, and comparative quantitative studies. Conclusion: The findings indicate that Montessori-focused postgraduate research in Türkiye demonstrates substantial disciplinary and methodological diversity. However, research remains concentrated in particular disciplinary fields and study groups, suggesting a need for broader disciplinary representation and greater diversity in future Montessori research.