The aim of this paper is to analyze the changes in European educational research through the way in which they are observed from within its disciplinary field. Educational research, in the European context, has been transformed in the last decades. In the analysis of this process of change three major forces have been identified. In this way, one of these forces is related to the European policy strategy of constructing the European Research Area (ERA) (Hoveid, Keiner & Seddon, 2014). A second force concerns how European educational research should be steered (Smeyers & Depaepe, 2016). And a third force is linked to a vision for European educational research, according to which it should follow a path identified in other sciences (namely, the natural and medical sciences) that value the production of evidence (Zapp, Powell & Marques, 2018).   

This paper aims to deepen the knowledge about the process of transformation of the European educational research, through the understanding of how the field of educational research has been considering it. Thus, I aim to identify and analyze the changes perceived in educational research, in the European context, in the last two decades from the observation of the scientific field of education (Keiner, 2010), taking as object the articles published by the European Educational Research Journal (EERJ), between 2002 and 2020. This entry by the scientific journal is based on the notion that specialized publications constitute a communicative space where research in education reflects on itself and assigns itself a meaning (Schriewer & Keiner, 1992). Indeed, scientific publications play a significant role in the construction of the field of educational research, by selecting which themes are discussed and how they are analyzed.

The study draws on Luhmann’s thematization theory (Luhmann, 2000) to analyze the role of the scientific publications in selecting specific themes as the focus of their productions and its effects on the construction of the scientific field of educational research in the European context. Thematizing a topic means attributing relevance to it, emphasizing its centrality and its significance in relation to the flow of unthematized information (Luhmann, 2000). Thematization is described as the process of defining, establishing and publicly recognizing the major themes in order to reduce complexity (Saperas, 1987).

In this paper, I intend to answer to the following question: How does EERJ thematize educational research in the European context?

The study is a systematic literature review (Newman & Gough, 2020; Xiao & Watson, 2019) of articles published in the EERJ between 2002 and 2020 that have as their topic educational research in the European context. The EERJ is a peer-reviewed journal launched by the European Educational Research Association (EERA) in 2002 with the aim of promoting educational research, developing methods for studying the educational research space in Europe, and encouraging reflection on how the European context and other regional or global dynamics shape educational research (European Educational Research Journal [EERJ], 2022; Lawn, 2002). The search for articles was conducted on the EERJ website. There was defined as inclusion criteria the focus on educational research in the European context. Exclusion criteria were publication formats that did not correspond to the “standard” single article; editorials, roundtables, reports, research reports, introductions, conclusions, and keynotes were excluded. Initially, the titles and abstracts of articles published between January 2002, when the first issue was launched, and November 2020 were analyzed. This initial analysis yielded 53 articles. After applying the exclusion criteria, 36 articles were obtained, which were subjected to a deeper analysis with a full reading of the texts. This analysis led to the elimination of 7 articles that dealt with related topics, such as educational policy or educational governance, among others. In the end, 29 articles remained, which are analyzed in this paper. I used content analysis to study how the EERJ contributes to the thematization of educational research and its impact on the construction of the scientific field of European educational research.

Educational research in the European context thematizes itself around five themes: structuring; identity and involvement; governance; internationalization; and research processes. Structuring attributes greater relevance to the role of EERA, EERJ, ECER and networks in the construction of the scientific field of educational research in the European context. This is perceived as being achieved through the scientific development of researchers, the transnational collaboration of researchers and research structures at the European and global levels, and the strengthening of Europeanization and internationalization. Identity and involvement highlight the representations, meanings and values associated with educational research in the European context that are achieved by researchers through their participation in the EERA, the networks and the ECER and through the development of a sense of belonging. Governance emphasizes meaningful actors and mechanisms for steering educational research in the European context. Internationalization attributes greater importance to practices and flows of people and knowledge between states, linked to research work in education, with regard to the construction of the ERA. This process is perceived as being achieved through publication criteria and work and research practices. Research processes emphasize the operationalization of educational research work and the configuration of educational research in the European context. European educational research considers itself on the basis of the five themes mentioned. The relevance attributed to themes such as internationalization and governance of educational research is part of the process of change that has taken place in the field of educational research in the European context in recent decades. In this sense, European educational research is thought around internationalization as a strategy to compete with other geopolitical and geoeconomics spaces, where researchers and research structures are encouraged to develop research at the transnational level. Moreover, there is a tendency for educational research in the European context to be governed by results.

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