Bibliometric analysis of research on (in)equality of opportunities in education

Abstract

In this study, it is aimed to systematically examine the development of publications on (in)equality of opportunity in education, over time. The metadata obtained from the Web of Science database was analyzed using bibliometric methods in order to see the change of publications between 1974 and 2020 over time. VOSviewer is used as popular visualization tools to process bibliographic data. 505 articles in the Web of Science (WoS) database were examined and the most cited articles, the most influential publications, and authors were determined, in addition to the distribution of the number of publications and citations by years. Co-authorship analysis was carried out to establish a visual map of the cooperation network in the field, and collaborations between authors, countries, and institutions were tried to be determined. In addition, in order to reveal the intellectual structure of the field, co-citation analysis was applied and the dominant writers and publications were tried to be determined. According to the results obtained, the number of publications and citations on (in)equality of opportunity in education has increased significantly over the years. However, the relationship between the authors, institutions, and countries appears to be weak in the field. Cooperation between authors and institutions is very weak, and most of the collaborating institutions are located in the USA. As a result of this research, since the researches in the field are conducted independently, it reveals that the publications about the (in)equality of opportunity in education will be made more comprehensive and in cooperation in the future.