Retrospective and Prospective Analysis on Educational Leadership: Indicators of Productivity, Dispersion, and Content

Abstract

This article analyzes the production, performance, impact, and content of scientific documents contained in an internationally recognized database, the Web of Science, that consider educational leadership (EL) thesaurus (title, abstract and/or keywords). To this end, a scientometric study was performed on a sample of 2,181 research documents that met the established inclusion criteria. A co-word analysis was also performed using Hirsch’s index (2005), as well as several bibliometric indicators, impact factors, and citation indices (h, g, hg, and q2). The main findings indicate that production on the topic of EL dates back to 1924, although it did not reach a significant level until 2004. Several important points related to the production profile on EL are highlighted: language, area of knowledge and institutions, and authors specializing in the subject. There are several lines of study open in the established periods, and the subjects that should be taken into account in the future are “critical-race-theory,” “identity,” and “distributedleadership.” The implications and limitations of the study are discussed and ways for education leaders to address new education policies and their practical implications are provided.