Teacher Education for Sustainable Development within the UN’s ESD Agenda: A Bibliometric Mapping

Abstract

ABSTRACT Teacher education policies have undergone revolutionary changes in response to rapid global transformations in recent years. The present study examined the integration of sustainable development into teacher education using bibliometric indicators. Using VOSviewer, we analysed around 1,300 academic journals to capture research trends and knowledge structures. The findings show that Teacher Education for Sustainable Development (TESD) research has expanded across several interconnected areas, with a large share of publications and citations associated with the United States, Spain, and Australia. The keyword and citation patterns suggest that the field is not organised around one single focus. Rather, it brings together several recurring concerns, including teacher competencies, curriculum implementation, policy and institutional support, interdisciplinary learning, global citizenship, and social justice. These patterns indicate that TESD has moved beyond environmental education alone and is increasingly discussed as part of teachers’ professional learning, curriculum design, and broader educational reform. However, the findings also suggest that TESD remains unevenly developed across contexts. More research is needed to examine how teacher education programmes translate education for sustainable development commitments into concrete courses, pedagogies, and assessment practices, particularly in relation to human well-being, equality, and local cultural contexts.