ABSTRACT

Storytelling, which emerged as an educational and therapeutic approach in the 1970s, has gained increasing attention in early childhood education. However, a comprehensive overview of how storytelling research has evolved in this field remains limited. This study employs a combination of bibliometric and content analysis to examine 397 publications on storytelling in early childhood education indexed in the Scopus database between 1970 and 2022. Bibliometric methods were used to analyze publication trends, document types, contributing countries, journals, authorship networks, and collaboration patterns, while content analysis was conducted on highly cited studies to identify major research themes. The results reveal a significant growth in storytelling research since 2010, with strong contributions from a small number of leading countries and journals. Thematic analysis indicates that storytelling research in early childhood education primarily focuses on language and literacy development, socio-emotional development and socialization, storytelling for children with special needs, therapeutic applications, technology-enhanced storytelling, and sustainability-related values education. These findings provide a comprehensive understanding of the intellectual structure, thematic evolution, and emerging directions of storytelling research in early childhood education, offering valuable implications for researchers, educators, and policymakers. Despite limitations related to database coverage, this study contributes to a clearer understanding of the intellectual structure and evolution of storytelling research in early childhood education.

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