The multifaceted landscape of educommunication: a scoping review

Abstract

Educommunication integrates communication and education into a unified approach to learning and knowledge dissemination. Representing a paradigmatic shift, educommunication has profound consequences for both fields. However, there is no clear definition of the concept, implying a necessity to synthesize existing knowledge about what educommunication means in different research contexts. This scoping review investigated how the concept educommunication was explicitly defined in contemporary international research literature. Five databases were searched to identify articles published between 2018–2023. Following a thorough selection and data extraction process, 90 full text articles were analyzed. Explicit definitions were identified in 50 of them. A thematic analysis confirmed the multifaceted nature of educommunication, implying that the concept has multiple meanings and interpretations. At the overarching level, educommunication is viewed as a new transdisciplinary field, a tool for societal transformation, and a set of pedagogical actions. The most frequent subtheme was the notion that educommunication entails a new epistemology, and therefore represents a paradigmatic shift. The second most frequent subtheme highlighted educommunication as a tool for political change, including matters of democracy, human rights, and citizenship. Since this review has a limited historical scope, future research could include tracking the concept educommunication from its origins in the 1970s to the present, to identify how it evolved over time and space.