Qualitatively mapping a research front through word-correspondence textual analysis: a case study

This paper presents word-correspondence textual analysis as a useful tool to shed new light on the scientifc production of a certain academic research group, university or other institution. The main rationale behind the study is that bibliometric assessment of scientifc production is a precious and unique instrument to objectively detect regularities in the structure of a given scientifc feld. The European Research Network About Parents in Education (ERNAPE) is a rather informal (but thriving and productive) research group in the feld of education, specifcally focused on parents’ role in schools. In this exploratory case study, word-correspondence analysis has been used as a mean to describe the process of building scientifc production. To this end, authors investigate how emphasis on different aspects in the feld of parents in education has evolved across different countries of the network. For this purpose, all abstracts stored in ERNAPE’s electronic archive in the period from 2003 to 2007 (N=228) have been collected and analyzed. Evidences from correspondence analysis highlight how topics and keywords used by researchers refect their cultural traditions and their representation of parental roles in education. For example, in Mediterranean countries researches are mainly focused on “family”, while in Nordic Countries “civil” reasons for the home-school relationship are emphasized.