Lessons Learned from the Last 200 Planetarium Education Research Dissertations

The synthesis-oriented literature review is a ubiquitous component of any comprehensive science research program. Few scholars would argue against the notion that discipline-based astronomy education research studies need be firmly situated within the existing scholarly landscape in order to establish relevance and theoretical underpinnings. Yet, some well-meaning journal reviewers have proposed all references and citations should focus first on recent papers published within the last five years. Such a constraint is often welcomed by nascent researchers, as it dramatically limits the scope of literature that must be surveyed. At the same time, some reviewers admonish writers to focus only on peer-reviewed journal articles at the expense of looking at unpublished dissertations. Through the $i$STAR \underline {i}nternational \underline {ST}udy of \underline {A}stronomy education \underline {R}esearch project at istardatabase.org, we have found more than 200 dissertations on planetarium education research from the last 100-years, which yield results largely unpublished in journals providing insight into longstanding planetarium education efforts.