Mathematics Education for Sustainability:
A Bibliometric Analysis of Global Research Trends
Abstract
The growing urgency of global environmental and social challenges has highlighted the role of education in supporting sustainable development, particularly under Sustainable Development Goal 4 (Quality Education). Although mathematics education is increasingly recognised as a tool for developing sustainability literacy, research in this area remains fragmented and lacks a comprehensive global synthesis. This study addresses this gap through a bibliometric analysis of Scopus-indexed publications from 2000 to 2024. Using VOSviewer, the study maps publication trends, prolific authors, contributing institutions, leading journals, country distribution, subject areas, keyword co-occurrence, and citation networks. The findings show a notable increase in publications after 2015 following the adoption of the SDGs, with dominant themes including STEM integration, environmental literacy, curriculum innovation, and sustainability pedagogy. The results also reveal that research contributions are largely concentrated in developed countries, indicating geographic disparities in the field. Overall, the study highlights the interdisciplinary growth of mathematics education for sustainability and emphasises the need for more inclusive and practice-oriented research to strengthen its role in addressing real-world sustainability challenges.
Copyright (c) 2026 Gading Journal for the Social Sciences (e-ISSN 2600-7568)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
