On Nodes and Nets in Educational Research Publishing Over Time and Place

• In Event: On Knowledge Organization of Educational Research: Comparative and International Mapping of Research Contributions and Publishing

Abstract

This paper is based on an interest in the social and intellectual organization of educational research (see e.g. Whitley, 2000) and how this is related to research governance. Referring to Gustavsson (2010) we are emphasizing the importance of knowledge organization – compared to individual research findings and statements – in order to capture the validity of research findings and scientific arguments and to understand what knowledge matters in different contexts. Given this we turn to research publishing and communication as measures to capture developments and tendencies in knowledge organization in the field of educational research. This interest is further underlined if we understand educational research as an adhocracy (Whitley, op cit.), depending on different stakeholders, resources, and problems addressed, which increase the instability of research tasks and their societal meaning (see e.g. Nowotny, 2003).

The objectives of this paper is firstly, to present a background to the problematic of knowledge organization in educational research, and to inform about previous research on knowledge organization in this field of study. Secondly, it gives a mapping of educational research publishing over time and place by means of ISI Web of Science.
The time period is 1960-2020 and the number of publications in the database referring to education or teaching almost six million. The bibliometric analyses do not deal with performative ranking, but are carried out in order to understand publication patterns and knowledge organisation in educational research.

The results show a remarkable expansion of educational research publication more than one hundred more publications in 2020 compared to 1960. The USA and UK are dominating the field in number of publications and citations, but the shares of East Asian publications are increasing rapidly.
Analyses of nodes and nets are presented as cases of research. Here we use research on teacher education (Author3) and on international large scale assessments as examples (Author5). It is concluded that educational research is an internationally expanding and dynamic research field, but also characterized by fragmentation. This is partly due to an increasing globalization in research cooperation, and to changes in the governing of higher education and research.
The paper presents reflections on limits of the chosen methodology and further developments of analyses of nodes and nets in educational research in international contexts. This is a task of significant importance for international research cooperation and knowledge contributions in the field of educational research.

Authors

• Sverker S:son Lindblad, University of Gothenburg

• Daniel Petterson, University of Gävle

• Katarina Samuelsson, Gothenburg University