Education for Sustainable Development: Evolution and Perspectives: A Bibliometric Review of Research, 1992–2018

Abstract

In recent years, the interest in research concerning Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has grown considerably. Therefore, a thorough (re)evaluation of this field and its challenges is highly necessary and can help us better understand the diversity of ESD approaches and the ways in which various scholars, countries, institutions, or universities reacted through research and scientific publications to the study of ESD. Using a bibliometric approach, we analyzed 1813 papers on the subject, indexed by the Web of Science, between 1992 and 2018. The main findings increased our understanding of the ESD domain: we identified vital research, landmark studies in the development of the field, critical past contributions, emerging trends, and potentially transformative ideas. The number of publications, authors, and journals has increased, proving that ESD has gained momentum over the period examined in the study. Similarly, there are more and more works written in collaboration by people (scholars, researchers, etc.) from different parts and cultures of the world, indicating that publishing on ESD is like a legacy to international efforts to bring this area of inquiry into the mainstream. Finally, the study illustrates two main research directions for the entire timespan: integration of education into sustainable development and of sustainable development into education.

Education for Sustainable Development in Germany: Not Just Desired but Also Effective for Transformative Action

“…"While ESD is being implemented in formal education all over the world, large-scale empirical research on its effects and effectiveness are scarce and strangely absent in the literature" [12] (p. 15,698). This desideratum still exists, despite the ever-expanding research interest in the field [28].…”

Cycling for a Sustainable Future. Stimulating Children to Cycle to School via a Synergetic Combination of Informational and Behavioral Interventions

“…Education and information transfer is one of these paths. Several recent publications, among which the paper of Grosseck et al [19], see education as a primordial step in achieving sustainable goals, and a major driver of change towards environmental sustainability, as is described, for example, in the Sustainable Development Goals (SGD4) and the UN Secretary General's Global Education First Initiative 2012-2016 [19][20][21]. The effect of focusing on knowledge, information, and skill transfer as a way to alter people's behavior is embedded in various behavioral change theories.…”

The Emergence of Technology in Physical Education: A General Bibliometric Analysis with a Focus on Virtual and Augmented Reality

“…To collect the data, a search in the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection TM was performed. This database was selected because the impact factor (IF) is the most common indicator used for evaluating scientific journals [41], and the vast majority of bibliographic analysis articles have used [42,43]. Therefore, the search was performed in the WoS Core Collection TM using the following indicators (1900-2019): Web of Science Core Collection, Derwent Innovations Index, KCI-Korean Journal Database, MEDLINE, Current Contents Connect, SciELO Citation Index, and Russian Science Citation Index.…”