Servant Leadership in educational contexts: A bibliometric analysis to guide management in the framework of SDG 4

Servant leadership is a leadership approach that focuses fundamentally on service to others. In educational contexts, servant leadership has become an attractive topic for research. The main objective of this research was to analyze the last 11 years of scientific production from the Scopus database on servant leadership in educational settings (2013-2023). 48 publications analyzed using bibliometric indicators were taken as a data source. The analysis includes visualization, bibliographic coupling, co-occurrence, and co-authorship analysis. The results of the study show that collaborative research networks between countries around the world were examined, with the United States emerging as the dominant contributor, followed by Indonesia, India, China, and Peru, with the period 2020 and 2022 being those with the highest scientific production, also validating that K. Dahleez, KF Latif, and F. Marimon were the most influential contributors in scientific production and citations; however, A. Abbas has made a greater contribution to Sustainable Development Goal 4, Quality education. The major legacy has focused on two main thematic areas, the Social Sciences and Business, Management and Accounting. The analysis of the main keywords revealed a deep research interest, highlighting the extension and diversity of the concepts of servant leadership, higher education, education, teachers, knowledge hiding, learning, leadership and life satisfaction. This study highlights the importance of international cooperation in the field of cultural research and the need for countries to develop research capital to address knowledge gaps. These findings reveal research trends for future studies, influential authors, and co-authorships across countries, helping researchers identify gaps and future directions. The findings may facilitate the development and use of servant leadership in educational settings to improve outcomes as a sector.