Keywords
Art education
Research status
Future directions
Interdisciplinary
Educational innovation
Bibliometric analysis
Submitted : 2026-04-16
Accepted : 2026-05-01
Published : 2026-05-16
Abstract
With the advancement of the global sustainable development agenda, interdisciplinary research on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has gained increasing attention. Through a bibliometric analysis of 529 articles in the Web of Science Core Collection, this study analyzes the current status of the research and the trends in the area of the intersection of ESD and art education. Findings indicate that the increase in publications is significant after 2013. Co-citation and co-word analyses indicate that existing studies mainly focus on macro-level themes such as conceptual evolution, policy discourse, ecological ethics, and action competence, while art education remains weakly connected and lacks an independent research cluster. This is an indicator that the current research in art education on ESD remains in its early years with significant structural deficiencies. However, there are also new interdisciplinary connections, which show the potential for significant growth. By mapping the knowledge structure of the field, this study identifies theoretical foundations, research gaps, and future directions, offering insights for the systematic integration of ESD into art education.
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