A Bibliometric Review of Research on Inequality of Educational Achievement, 1934 to 2023

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 11:40 am Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Tracing the Threads of Educational Inequality in Historical Scholarship (Table 13)

Abstract

This study is a bibliometric review of achievement gaps, examining the temporal trends and geographic distributions, identifying key scholars and publications, as well as uncovering the intellectual structure and topical focus of achievement gap research. Analyzing 1,607 achievement gap studies between 1937 and 2023, this study found that the achievement gap scholarship has a long history with four stages. Author co-citation analysis unveils six schools of thought that underpin the way scholars conceptualize and examine achievement gap. The findings underscore a need for more interconnected, interdisciplinary approaches that integrate various paradigms to address the achievement gap comprehensively. We advocate for future research to move beyond isolated impacts by promoting collaborative efforts among all stakeholders from multiple disciplines.

Authors

• Huang Wu, University of Missouri - Kansas City

• Jianping Shen, Western Michigan University