Bibliometric analysis of studies on controversial issues
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29329/pedper.2024.82Keywords:
Controversial issues, Bibliometric analysis, Social studiesAbstract
Controversial issues are complex issues where societies face dilemmas. When controversial issues come to the agenda, an environment that can cause polarization in society can be created. Therefore, controversial issues are seen as taboo topics in educational settings. However, both international non-governmental organizations and academic studies show that bringing controversial issues into the classroom environment develops higher order thinking skills. There are many controversial topics in history, social studies and science courses. Studies on controversial issues show changes in the perspective on controversial issues. Rather than whether these topics should be included in classrooms, studies on why it is important to include these topics, how they should be included and suggestions for solutions to overcome the obstacles encountered stand out today. This study aims to map the studies on the concept of controversial issues based on quantitative data. In addition, the study aims to provide researchers with a systematic summary of the studies on controversial issues using bibliometric analysis and to reveal the trends and gaps related to the concept. As the unit of analysis, the bibliometric data of the studies scanned in the Web of Science database and published between 1980 and 2024 were taken into consideration. Looking at the distribution of 680 studies on controversial issues according to the years of publication, it is seen that there has been an increase in the number of studies on controversial issues in recent years.
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