Publication Trends in Integrating Education for Sustainable Development into Learning: A Bibliometric Study (2019-2023)

Abstract

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has increasingly become a pivotal framework for nurturing global awareness and prompting action toward environmental preservation, social equity, and economic progress in recent years. This study endeavors to examine publication trends concerning the integration of ESD into learning from 2019 to 2023. We visually dissected bibliographic data using VOSviewer software alongside bibliometric analysis tools such as RStudio and biblioshiny. Among the 738 documents sourced from the Scopus database, we observed fluctuating publication patterns, with Sustainability (Switzerland) emerging as the foremost contributor, totaling 201 documents. Spain led in ESD-focused publications, with a tally of 294. Noteworthy institutions included Fujian Medical University and Uppsala University, yielding 27 and 23 publications, respectively. Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia prominently represented Indonesia. Matthias Barth, hailing from Germany, emerged as the top author with 11 documents. The most globally cited documents, published in the Sustainability Science Journal, accrued 236 citations. Analysis of research trends highlighted prominent themes such as ESD, Sustainable Development, Sustainability, SDGs, and Learning while also shedding light on underexplored domains, including learning systems, deep learning, mobile learning, teacher training, climate change education, critical thinking, sustainable education, and AI. This study underscores the imperative to further explore and invest in ESD across diverse arenas to address sustainability challenges and foster societal resilience and equity. It advocates for future research endeavors integrating diverse data sources, bibliographic connections, and qualitative analyses.