Student Leadership in Primary and Secondary Education: A Bibliometric Mapping of Scopus-Indexed Research from 1930 to 2026

Abstract Although student leadership in schools has attracted growing scholarly attention, the field remains fragmented and its intellectual and geographical structure is poorly understood. This study provides the first comprehensive bibliometric mapping of Scopus-indexed research on student leadership in primary and secondary education covering the period from 1930 to 12 September 2026. A systematic search retrieved 234 records; after document-type filtering, duplicate removal and rigorous title-and-abstract screening, 130 documents constituted the final corpus. Performance analysis and science mapping examined annual production, authors, sources, countries, citations, co-authorship, keyword co-occurrence, bibliographic coupling and thematic recency. The findings reveal rapid yet uneven growth: although the corpus spans nearly a century, 83 documents (63.8%) appeared between 2016 and 2026. These 130 documents, produced by 311 authors across 107 sources, accumulated 1,156 citations and an h-index of 21. Growth, however, has not produced consolidation. Output remains dispersed across 107 outlets with no specialist journal; recurring co-authorship is confined to small, disconnected teams; and the international collaboration rate stands at only 7.7%. Geographically, the United States (44 documents) and Australia (14) dominate, South Africa (9) leads African scholarship, and most world regions remain unrepresented. Keyword analysis identifies “student leadership” and “student voice” as the central connecting concepts, linking democratic voice and governance, leadership competency development, and student-led programmes in health, sustainability and school improvement. Overlay visualisation demonstrates a clear thematic shift from councils, governance and training toward student agency, inclusivity, gender and positive youth development. The study makes three contributions. First, it provides the first systematic bibliometric overview of research on student leadership in primary and secondary schools. Second, it shows that while publication output has grown rapidly, the field has not become more organised: researchers still lack shared definitions, dedicated journals, and stable collaborations. Third, it reveals major gaps in geography and collaboration, and proposes a focused agenda for comparative research in underrepresented education systems.