Integrating environmental sustainability and values in mathematics education: A comparative bibliometric analysis and framework for sustainable mathematics learning (2005–2026)

Abstract

Background: Environmental sustainability and values-oriented mathematics education have gained increasing scholarly attention, yet their conceptual and intellectual connections remain insufficiently mapped.

Aims: This study aimed to compare the knowledge structures of these research domains, assess their observable convergence, and formulate an integrative agenda for sustainable mathematics learning.

Method: A comparative bibliometric analysis was conducted using English-language Scopus records published between 2005 and 2026. The analysis included mathematics × environment (n = 209) and mathematics × values/ethnomathematics (n = 362) corpora, with an environment × values corpus (n = 3,853) serving as a contextual benchmark. Publication performance, geographical distribution, journals, co-authorship, keyword co-occurrence, co-citation, and bibliographic coupling were examined.

Results: Limited convergence was identified. Only three records emerged from the direct three-block search, while four overlap candidates were found among 567 deduplicated focal records (0.71%). The environmental corpus centered on sustainability, climate, and modelling, whereas the values corpus emphasized ethnomathematics, culture, local wisdom, and character.

Conclusion: The findings demonstrate distinct yet potentially complementary knowledge structures. The proposed ESME-V framework connects cognitive-ecological literacy, affective-ethical engagement, and spiritual-cultural grounding as a testable framework for advancing sustainable mathematics learning.