The purpose of this study is to identify the trends in master’s theses on visual arts conducted in Turkish primary education. We used different combination of keywords regarding visual arts and primary education and identified 84 master’s theses. Utilizing content analysis, we identified the title of the advisor, date, university, department, level, methods, sampling method, grade level, sample size, data collection, data analysis, implications, keywords, gender of the researcher, the number of Turkish and English sources were identified. Findings were given in frequency and coding tables. The results indicated that most master’s thesis on visual arts conducted in Turkey writers were female, the advisor of the theses were mostly assistant professor, thesis were mostly published in 2011, most theses were published in Gazi University, most thesis were published in arts education departments, most theses were in master’s degree. Most studies utilized qualitative analysis and conducted with primary school students. Data analysis techniques included content analysis and documents analysis. Examining the implications of the thesis results showed that professional development courses could be given, art education environments should be equipped with proper materials, duration of visual arts courses should be increased, and collaboration with museums should be established.

Keywords: visual arts, primary education, content analysis, master’s thesis