Tendencies in the Trends of Mathematics Teacher Knowledge: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Despite growing scholarly interest in mathematics teacher knowledge over the past 25 years, no comprehensive systematic mapping has been conducted to examine its conceptual evolution, thematic structure, and developmental trajectory. This study aims to map publication trends; identify high impact works; uncover thematic associations and conceptual co-occurrences; trace the temporal evolution of dominant topics; and classify research themes by their developmental trajectory, distinguishing motor, basic, niche, and declining themes in mathematics teacher knowledge research. A total of 550 Scopus-indexed articles published between 1 January 2000, and 31 December 2025 were analysed using the bibliometrix R package, covering performance analysis, science mapping, and keyword co-occurrence network analysis. The results show a steady increase in publications, with a sharp rise after 2018 and a peak around 2025. Citation impact was highest during the formative period of 2005–2010, reflecting the field’s consolidation around foundational frameworks of mathematical knowledge for teaching. Mathematical content knowledge, PCK, and MKT consistently constitute the field's conceptual core, with mathematical content knowledge serving as the central connecting node across all thematic clusters. Topic trends analysis reveals a clear trajectory from broad theoretical frameworks toward more specialised, practice-oriented, and technology-integrated topics from 2020 onward. Strategic diagram analysis classifies teaching quality and initial teacher education as current motor themes, indicating that the field has matured from defining teacher knowledge to operationalising it in classroom practice. Future research should prioritise cross-database validation and geographic network analysis and should examine how the depth of mathematical content knowledge conditions the development of technology-integrated teaching competencies such as TPACK.