Global competences and education for sustainable development. A bibliometric analysis to situate the OECD global competences in the scientific discourse

Abstract The Programme for International Study Assessment (PISA) regularly assesses a set of interdisciplinary competences in addition to the traditional core domains. With the 2018 assessment of ‘global competences’, the OECD (2019) aims to support evidence-based decisions on the improvement of the curricula and teaching in order to prepare young people to become active and global citizens who contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In assessing this domain, the OECD is entering a field of research characterised by dynamic debates and heterogeneous research strands. The aim of this paper is to visualise the theoretical foundations on which the analytical PISA 2018 Global Competence Framework (OECD 2019) is based, allowing a transparent discussion of the different theoretical reference points. The bibliometric analyses reveal that discourses related to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) are hardly taken into account in the analytical framework. The paper subsequently formulates impetus from the ESD research field with the aim of linking discourses in the future.