Analysis of mapping knowledge domains of special education research: a comparison of CSSCI and SSCI indexes

Abstract:

Special education is a natural yardstick to measure a country’s educational level and the whole civilization. China has a massive special education undertaking that develops rapidly and forms a unique system. This study used bibliometric methods to conduct a macroscopic comparative analysis of Chinese and global literature, discuss the existing problems of China’s special education, and put forward relevant recommendations accordingly. The CiteSpace V visual analysis software was used to draw the scientific knowledge map of the Chinese local database CSSCI and the global database SSCI, and the results of the map were discussed. Research conclusions: Firstly, China’s research institutions lack a macro-level cooperation network. Second, there are differences in the focus of special education objects between China and the world. This difference is mainly caused by the definition of special education objects, which may be influenced by the formulation of educational concepts and policies. Thirdly, in the reference co-citation analysis, the focus of Chinese research is narrow and generally focuses on special education teachers. This article provides implications for solving special education problems in China, and its research method provides a reference for future related research for other countries.

Keywords:

• Special education
• mapping knowledge domains
• research hotspots
• co-occurrence
• burst phrases
• reference co citation

Acknowledgements

We appreciate all the support from Guangzhou Science and Technology Plan Project (201803010006), University Teaching Quality and Teaching Reform Project Construction Project of Guangdong Province in 2019- Applied Psychology Experimental Teaching Demonstration Centre, and Education science Planning project of Guangzhou Medical University in 2019 (PX-31941).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.