Systematic Reviews and Meta Analysis

Mapping Educational Leadership Research: A Bibliometric Analysis of Global Collaboration, Intellectual Structure, and Thematic Evolution (2000–2025)

Volume: 16 Number: 2 June 24, 2026
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Mapping Educational Leadership Research: A Bibliometric Analysis of Global Collaboration, Intellectual Structure, and Thematic Evolution (2000–2025)

Abstract

Education leadership research has grown rapidly in the last 20 years and has resulted in a diverse, multinational body of research; however, studies integrating the analysis of collaboration networks, intellectual foundations, and thematic trendlines are still limited. The purpose of this study was to address this gap through an extensive bibliometric analysis of educational leadership research published between 2000 and 2025. Using 5,353 peer-reviewed journal articles from Scopus, the study employed multiple bibliometric techniques (co-authorship, co-citation, citation analysis, and keyword co-occurrence analysis) with VOSviewer to delineate the global structure and growth of the field. The results indicate that the overall collaborative network of authorship is distributed in an extremely dense/collapsed manner, and the dominant regions were Australia, Canada, the UK, and the US, along with a rapidly expanding research cluster in Asia and the Middle East. In terms of intellectual networks, the co-citation analysis produced a stable intellectual core comprised of instructional, transformational, and distributed leadership theories and exposed an increasing integration of social justice, equity, and teacher well-being as areas of research. The citation analysis indicated that foundational research from the early 2000s continues to have a lasting impact on newer research, while more recent research has begun to contain some focus on addressing contemporary problems, such as crisis leadership and digital transformation. The results of the keyword co-occurrence analysis show evidence that there has been a recent thematic shift away from research focused on school reform and instructional leadership and more toward topics of equity, instructional improvement, teacher professionalism, and pandemic-related issues. By integrating multiple bibliometric techniques into a single study, this study provides a multidimensional overview of educational leadership research and valuable insights to education researchers and policymakers, as well as to leadership preparation program developers.

Keywords

Ethical Statement

Ethics approval was not required for this study as it is a bibliometric analysis based on publicly available data and did not involve human participants or animals.

References

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Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Education Management

Journal Section

Systematic Reviews and Meta Analysis

Publication Date

June 24, 2026

Submission Date

December 29, 2025

Acceptance Date

June 1, 2026

Published in Issue

Year 2026 Volume: 16 Number: 2

APA
Ayhan, İ. (2026). Mapping Educational Leadership Research: A Bibliometric Analysis of Global Collaboration, Intellectual Structure, and Thematic Evolution (2000–2025). Anadolu Journal of Educational Sciences International, 16(2), 839-869. https://doi.org/10.18039/ajesi.1851231
AMA
1.Ayhan İ. Mapping Educational Leadership Research: A Bibliometric Analysis of Global Collaboration, Intellectual Structure, and Thematic Evolution (2000–2025). AJESI. 2026;16(2):839-869. doi:10.18039/ajesi.1851231
Chicago
Ayhan, İrfan. 2026. “Mapping Educational Leadership Research: A Bibliometric Analysis of Global Collaboration, Intellectual Structure, and Thematic Evolution (2000–2025)”. Anadolu Journal of Educational Sciences International 16 (2): 839-69. https://doi.org/10.18039/ajesi.1851231.
EndNote
Ayhan İ (June 1, 2026) Mapping Educational Leadership Research: A Bibliometric Analysis of Global Collaboration, Intellectual Structure, and Thematic Evolution (2000–2025). Anadolu Journal of Educational Sciences International 16 2 839–869.
IEEE
[1]İ. Ayhan, “Mapping Educational Leadership Research: A Bibliometric Analysis of Global Collaboration, Intellectual Structure, and Thematic Evolution (2000–2025)”, AJESI, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 839–869, June 2026, doi: 10.18039/ajesi.1851231.
ISNAD
Ayhan, İrfan. “Mapping Educational Leadership Research: A Bibliometric Analysis of Global Collaboration, Intellectual Structure, and Thematic Evolution (2000–2025)”. Anadolu Journal of Educational Sciences International 16/2 (June 1, 2026): 839-869. https://doi.org/10.18039/ajesi.1851231.
JAMA
1.Ayhan İ. Mapping Educational Leadership Research: A Bibliometric Analysis of Global Collaboration, Intellectual Structure, and Thematic Evolution (2000–2025). AJESI. 2026;16:839–869.
MLA
Ayhan, İrfan. “Mapping Educational Leadership Research: A Bibliometric Analysis of Global Collaboration, Intellectual Structure, and Thematic Evolution (2000–2025)”. Anadolu Journal of Educational Sciences International, vol. 16, no. 2, June 2026, pp. 839-6, doi:10.18039/ajesi.1851231.
Vancouver
1.İrfan Ayhan. Mapping Educational Leadership Research: A Bibliometric Analysis of Global Collaboration, Intellectual Structure, and Thematic Evolution (2000–2025). AJESI. 2026 Jun. 1;16(2):839-6. doi:10.18039/ajesi.1851231