Addressing the climate emergency with educational approaches: a bibliometric analysis of climate change education scholarship

This study uses bibliometric techniques to explore the international knowledge base on climate change education (CCE), which considers education as crucial for addressing the climate emergency through fostering climate-literate citizens. Analyzing two decades of scientific literature on CCE, we identify evolving considerations, foci, trends, and recommendations, examining a total of 1,264 articles published between 2000 and 2022 in educational-related fields in Web of Science. Using bibliometric techniques, we assessed research trends, author co-citations and journal citations to reveal an evolving publication landscape, including shifts in locations of productive researchers, influential articles, and leading journals publishing CCE studies. Bibliometric techniques help to identify the intellectual knowledge structure and inter-journal referencing, encompassing Theoretical Basis of CCE, Psychology of CCE and Communication, Climate Change within Socioscientific Issues, Conceptions of Climate Change, and Epistemology in CCE. Based on the trends, association networks, limitations and gaps revealed by this analysis, we conclude with suggestions for future research.