Analysis of the development of themes associated with studies concerning education and covid-19

Abstract

Education during the pandemic presents itself as a great theme for research between 2020 and 2021. Covid-19 has impacted many people and educational systems have been put to test all over the world. In this regard, several studies, mostly in pre-print, discuss these impacts in relation to a variety of research topics. Therefore, as the pandemic has been a problem affecting education in global proportions, how do the research topics converge in addressing the relationship between education and covid-19 in the major world studies? Getting to know such thematic relations, arising from the scientific research that links education and covid-19, may provide some insights to deal with the educational problems faced in this period. The objective of this study is to describe the themes of high-impact research which associate education with covid-19. For this purpose, data were retrieved from Web of a Science, a centralized database, by means of articles linking education and covid-19 in the field of educational research. These articles have been analyzed by using scientometrics, which created science maps and a thematic network in order to categorize the 607 studies found. Results show the emergence of four categories of topics appearing the articles reviewed: those with consolidated themes, which bring the major topics of the research field; with emerging themes, which present studies raising new topics; of medium dispersion, which seek to specialize the field of knowledge; and the fragmented articles, which show a high dispersion of themes, presenting a myriad of reseach possibilities.