A systematic mapping of graduate theses on Turkish music voice training: Methodological and pedagogical tendencies in professional music education

Turkish music voice training is a multidimensional field of professional music education that combines technical vocal development with the transmission of traditional performance characteristics. This study systematically maps graduate theses on Turkish music voice training to identify thematic and methodological tendencies, pedagogical outputs, and research gaps within professional music education. The study was designed as a systematic mapping study based on qualitative document analysis. Searches were conducted in the title field of the Council of Higher Education National Thesis Center on January 10–11, 2026, using the search terms individually and in Boolean combinations. After deduplication, 29 unique candidate theses were assessed, of which 23 met the inclusion criteria. A second coder independently reassessed eligibility for all 29 candidates, resulting in 100% agreement (Cohen’s kappa = 1.00), and independently coded a category-diverse subset of 10 of the 23 included theses (43.5%). Coding differences were resolved by consensus, and the finalized coding rules were applied across the complete corpus. Data were summarized through descriptive analysis, frequencies, percentages, and thematic mapping. Repertoire was the most frequent main topic (5 theses, 21.7%), followed by Curriculum and Exercise (4 each, 17.4%). Qualitative/descriptive survey designs were most frequent (8, 34.8%), while quantitative-dominant studies also formed a notable group (5, 21.7%). Interviews/opinions were the most common data source (17, 73.9%). Direct implementation/intervention and explicit assessment were each present in 5 theses (21.7%), acoustic measurement in 2 (8.7%), and an identifiable validity or reliability procedure was reported in 9 (39.1%). The mapped literature shows increasing thematic and methodological breadth, but classroom-based testing, structured performance assessment, and systematic validation remain less common than descriptive and interpretive approaches. These frequencies describe the composition of the thesis corpus and should not be interpreted as evidence of methodological quality or pedagogical effectiveness. Future research should place greater emphasis on implementation-based studies, level-sensitive repertoire and makam-based exercise systems, and valid and reliable performance assessment tools.