Education as an object of study in Latin America and the interests of the scientific community: A bibliographical approach based on a systematic literature review

Abstract

Education is regarded as a key area virtually anywhere in the world. Disadvantaged and developing countries are the most committed in this area as they are very aware of the benefits education can bring. Latin America has made progress in this field and to pave the way for a prosperous future it is necessary to document what has been done, what is being done and what is being approached from a scientific point of view. Ultimately, the educational advancement of a country, to a large extent, also depends on the advancement of education as a science. Therefore, this work offers a literature review that aims to identify the aspects that are being addressed in this field, taking education as an object of scientific study within the Latin American community. Based on the analysis of the most-cited research articles, we aim to identify the predominant subjects and geographical locations in research on education in Latin America. The application of a method based on systematic literature review indicates that there is still a low incidence of scientific documents that relate the variables "Education" and "Latin America". Other results speak of an object of study based on geographical totality, not specific countries, and references to generic educational levels. Finally, "social policy" stands as the main sub-theme of study related to education.