Mapping Global Trends in Teacher Competencies

Teacher Competencies (TC), as a pivotal dimension of teacher effectiveness influencing teachers' professional growth, has gained prominence in recent teacher education research. This article aims to define TC through literature review, examine the current status and future directions of TC research. Analyzing 1117 SSCI-indexed articles from the Web of Science database (2000-2023), a bibliometric analysis was conducted, exploring research areas, journals, countries, affiliations, authors, citations and keywords. The results, corroborated by the Mann-Kendall trend test, highlight a robust and influential Teacher Competencies literature indicating growing interest, with a notable increase in publications, especially in 2021-2022. While the United States of America leads the way, contributions from Germany, Spain, China, and Turkey show global participation. The findings affirm sustained growth, emphasizing the field's dynamism, global collaboration and a solid foundation. Among the influential authors, Pantic, Krueger, Pekrun, Blömeke and Kaiser stand out; “Sustainability”, “Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft” and “Teaching and Teacher Education” stand out as the most prolific journals, and the most citations are mainly concentrated in “Teaching and Teacher Education”. Leading institutions include ‘Nanyang Technological University’, ‘Humboldt University’ and ‘Hong Kong University’. Diverse keywords signify comprehensive expertise, reflecting the field's multidimensionality. As a result of the thematic clustering analysis conducted with VOSviewer, six keyword clusters were identified: ‘higher education and teacher training in the context of COVID-19’, ‘teacher education and professional development for sustainable STEM Teaching and creativity’, ‘assessment of competencies in preservice teachers’, ‘formative assessment in mathematics teacher professional development’, ‘teacher competence in science education and preparation’ and ‘motivation and self-efficacy in technology’. In summary, this study confirms the dynamic and globally collaborative nature of TA research and offers insights for future research. Therefore, it is recommended that future studies focus on prominent themes such as digital competence, self-assessment, sustainable teacher education, and cross-cultural comparisons. Furthermore, fostering greater interdisciplinary and international collaboration in teacher education will increase the scope and impact of the field.