Trends of cultural studies in science education: A systematic review from 1973 to 2023

Abstract

In this study, a systematic literature review on cultural studies in science education between 1973 and 2023 was conducted through the Scopus database. Content analysis was used in this study in which 277 articles from the last 50 years were reviewed. According to the guidelines of Petticrew and Roberts (2006), trends of cultural studies in science education were investigated in terms of annual accounts, number of articles by authors, distribution of articles by country, most productive journals, most cited articles, and most preferred research methods. The results showed that research on cultural studies in science education fluctuated between slowing down and positively accelerating. The growth rate of the articles peaked in 2013. Three authors have three papers, twenty authors have two papers, and the rest of author each have one paper in terms of the distribution of number of authors. Analysis revealed that most articles come from countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, while interest in this area is growing in countries such as Australia, Canada, and Turkey. Cultural Studies of Science Education, International Journal of Science Education, International Journal of Psychology, and Science and Education being the most productive journals in this field. The most cited article with 160 citations was published in 2012 by Nagengast and Marsh (2012) in Journal of Educational Psychology. Finally, the most popular research design was quantitative research method followed by mixed (quantitative and qualitative together) research method. Some implications are proposed for future studies.