Invisible borders in educational technology research? A comparative analysis

Abstract

Educational research is reflective of the nature and structure of national and regional education systems and their historical evolution. Educational technology research, as an area within educational research, reflects this case particularly prominently. Although individual countries and regions have varying research traditions, the publication of research in English as the scientific lingua franca can lead to missing nuances in terminology, which is often not reflected upon. Despite this, the exploration of research from different countries can still uncover diverse topical clusters. This study aims to identify the research topics in educational technology research in three countries (Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom), each with their own research traditions, through the terms used. To this end, a bibliometric analysis of 3034 article abstracts and keywords from 29 English-language Web of Science journals in the field of education and educational research was conducted, with a focus on educational technology. In addition, the quantitative findings are comparatively analysed by considering the corresponding cultural clusters. Main findings include diverse research foci in the three countries, also showing that distinct research traditions are still present, despite using English as lingua franca. Therefore, research articles written in English by non-English authors often do not reflect the same meanings in each country, despite using the same words. The conclusions reflect upon the need to establish ways of understanding the traditions behind those research articles and build collaborative systems to illustrate nuances in this research.

Mapping the Landscape of Doctoral Research in Technologies in Education: A 25-Year Analysis in Portuguese Universities

“…A possible interpretation of these results, as pointed out by other studies in the field of TE [15], may be related to a free and open spirit in the researchers, allowing them to forge new approaches (theoretical and methodological) that are often not limited to a strictly disciplinary point of view. This hypothesis seems equally relevant to helping us explain the emergence of a pattern that mirrors and, in a certain sense, validates the interdisciplinary nature of TE, which is shown both in the research [11,17] and in the post-graduation offers available [4,5].…”

“…However, it should be pointed out that, in one third of the dissertations that comprise the corpus of analysis of this study, no speciality area was explicitly mentioned. This finding, as well as being an indicator that reflects a research dynamic that transcends the logic of specialised knowledge in TE [11,17], also helps us to understand the difficulty felt in relation to categorising the dissertations by linking them to conceptual structures that traditionally characterise the specificity of the TE area.…”

“…While certain technologies are still in the process of establishing their presence in educational research [10,11], TE has evolved into a significant sub-field within the broader domain of education [8]. A deeper exploration of this sub-field is essential for understanding its subject matter and the prevailing directions in scientific inquiry [5,7].…”