Mapping technology research in islamic education: a bibliometric analysis of research trends, intellectual structure, and emerging themes

Abstract

The integration of technology into Islamic education has accelerated over the past decade, yet the resulting body of research remains scattered across disciplines, institutions, and thematic traditions. This study maps the collaborative, intellectual, relational, and conceptual structure of research on technology in Islamic education using bibliometric analysis and science mapping. Bibliographic records were retrieved from the Scopus database using a search string combining Islamic-education terms (Islamic education, madrasah, madrasa, pesantren, Islamic school, Islamic higher education) with technology terms (technology, digital, ICT, educational technology). The initial search returned 627 records; after applying database-level filters (publication years 2020–2026, English language, article document type, and journal source type) the interface reported 430 documents. Auditing the exported dataset against the same criteria yielded 385 verifiable journal articles, which were used as the analytical corpus; the discrepancy is reported transparently in the Methods. Four analyses were performed in VOSviewer: author co-authorship, author co-citation, bibliographic coupling of documents, and all-keyword co-occurrence. Results show a rapidly expanding but geographically concentrated field dominated by Indonesian and Malaysian scholarship, a fragmented collaboration structure composed of many small and loosely connected author groups, an intellectual base that draws simultaneously on Islamic-education foundations, Islamic epistemology, and imported quantitative and qualitative methodologies, and a conceptual space organized around five thematic clusters. Temporal mapping indicates that early work centered on e-learning, teaching, and instructional systems, whereas artificial intelligence, digital literacy, digital transformation, and Islamic higher education have emerged as recent research fronts. The study offers an evidence-based agenda for consolidating a still-fragmented field.