A social network analysis of global scholarship on physical education content knowledge

Abstract

We use a co-authorship network analysis to describe and examine the social network of researchers studying physical education content knowledge worldwide. Co-authorship network analysis is a method for determining the scope, trend, and focus of research around a topic. It provides a way to evaluate both the growth of a field and to examine the extent of research collaboration. Our review consists of 101 articles that were examined in our network analysis. Our results show that the research on content knowledge occurs within and among 13 high-income economies. Research productivity in this area is on an upward trajectory since 1990. The research in physical education occurs in a distributed network with some authors serving as key hubs for research collaboration. From a global perspective, there is a need to create links to low-income economies to strengthen their research capacity.