In this paper, I report on a review of over 400 master's level dissertations in geography education completed since 1968 at the UCL Institute of Education, London. The aim of this review is to understand how the field of geography education has been understood and problematised by practitioners within the field. Unlike the Road Map Report on Geography Education Research which reviews geography education research from a strategic perspective, this research explores the field from the perspective of the practitioners and, therefore, asks what are the issues that concern practitioner researchers. Whilst practitioners add an important perspective on the field, their concerns are often not evident in the published literature. This paper argues that the practitioner focus on "problems of the day" is a key dimension that needs to be more widely recognised in the academic literature. This goes beyond a simple definition of research as describing "what works" in education, but as part of an ongoing dialogue between research and practice that is characteristic of a practical field of research enquiry. The research contributes to our understanding of how the field of geography education (within specific contexts) is experienced and problematised by practitioners.