Curricularizing environmental education in higher education: Bibliometric evidence and a didactic strategy framework

Abstract

Environmental education has gained visibility in higher education, yet it is still seldom treated as explicit curricular content that can be deliberately planned, taught, and assessed. This study examined how the literature addresses environmental education in curricular terms within higher education and, based on that evidence, proposed a didactic strategy framework for its systematic integration across disciplines. A two-stage exploratory-descriptive design combined a structured literature review with Scopus-based bibliometric mapping for 2020–2026. Records were analyzed to identify publication dynamics, thematic trends, and collaboration patterns, and VOSviewer was used to visualize the main networks of the field. The findings show that studies explicitly linking environmental education, curricular content, teaching strategies, and higher education remain limited in the indexed literature. Although the broader field has become more visible, it still shows fragmentation and limited guidance on curricular integration, instructional sequencing, assessment, and faculty preparation. The study proposes a didactic strategy framework organized around theorization, methodological planning, faculty training, research, and monitoring and evaluation. Overall, the results indicate that curricularizing environmental education requires clearer pedagogical decisions, stronger institutional coordination, and sustained faculty support.