Sixty Years of School Climate Research: A Bibliometric and Content Analysis

ABSTRACT This study aimed to reveal the growth trend of school climate research, institutional and geographical contributions, the most impactful institutions, journals, and countries, the co‐authorship network of countries, the most impactful articles, the intellectual structure of the knowledge base, research fronts, and thematic evolution. This study, based on 2915 publications from the Web of Science spanning approximately 60 years, integrates bibliometric and content analysis to provide a comprehensive analysis of school climate. According to the findings, school climate research tends to grow in general, but the volume of research has grown significantly in the last decade. The school climate literature has evolved into a multidisciplinary field and continues to expand across disciplines. The USA dominates the co‐authorship collaboration network and contributes more than half of the school climate studies. The intellectual structure of school climate research is composed of four clusters, while the research fronts are categorized into six clusters. The intellectual structure of school climate focuses on academic achievement, student behavior, bullying, school engagement, social‐emotional learning, and teacher well‐being. However, over time, technological, social, and political influences have transformed the knowledge base, leading to the emergence of themes such as cyberbullying, sexual identity, racial discrimination, and inequality in school climate research.