The existence of environmental education in the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic literature review

Abstract

The implementation of environmental education in the world is affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, so researchers must be responsive, adjust and creative strategies to survive, and think about future anticipations. The focus and concern of researchers towards the theme of environmental education and COVID-19 is highly expected, as evidenced by the research results published in reputable journals. The purpose of this systematic literature review was to review and compare investigations of research on articles published by Scopus indexed journals. We used the phrase “environmental education and COVID-19” in the disbursement menu in Scopus Database and found 1379 articles. Furthermore, only 21 articles met the criteria to be analyzed. The inclusion and exclusion model used is PRISMA. There has been a trend of increasing publications in the last four years. Environmental education issues can be approached through qualitative, quantitative, mix-method, case studies, and R&D. The authors most in the spotlight are Lowan-Trudeau, G. (reference), Aristovnik, A. (bibliographic coupling), and Mehmood, R. (co-citation). The keywords that are mostly used by the author are COVID-19, education, higher education, and sustainable development. This environmental education keyword has branches into climate change, sustainable development, and adaptation. There are 22 countries of origin of authors who published articles, dominantly from the United States and the Republic of Korea. Articles are published equally by authors from Europe, Asia, and America. It was found that there were more articles published in collaboration between universities within one country and between countries. Rarely are articles written by a single author. There are 20 institutions that provide funding for research and publications. Most publications have fulfilled one of the ethics by declaring funding status. We succeeded in formulating and discussing a description of the existence of environmental education during the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings can serve as a consideration or baseline for researchers to study environmental education and COVID-19 themes according to their respective backgrounds and objectives.