State of the art research in education: characteristics and challenges

Abstract

In this article, a systematic review study was carried out based on the analysis of 47 productions resulting from state-of-the-art research, selected from a universe of 113 review studies produced in the period from 2000 to 2016: articles published in national journals of the area of education, registered in SciELO; books and the Inep’s Estado do Conhecimento Series. The objective of the article was to analyze the theoreticalmethodological characteristics of the research, identify the challenges to its realization and indicate trends, potentialities and challenges to metaknowledge in the field of education. As a result, it can be stated that there is a common basic repertoire on the methodological design of states of the art shared by researchers, but it is still necessary to advance in establishing criteria that are fundamental to the development of these studies, which can be systematized into four main challenges: greater dialogue with the literature on review studies; creation of networks of researchers; advance in the complete reading of the works or read parts that may bring relevant information about the characteristics of the research, such as introduction, methodology and conclusions; improve and increase research that maps, evaluates and produces syntheses to guide researchers and their commitment to science and social demands.