Leadership and learning communities: a bibliometric analysis of academic research (1989-2024)

Leadership and the learning community have become fundamental in educational reform, professional learning, and organizational renewal in recent decades. In addition, teachers are increasingly active participants in the content of schooling, shaping collaborative spaces that enhance school and learning effectiveness and improve student outcomes. The rise of teacher leadership and professional learning communities exemplifies how organizational behavior increasingly reflects distributed and participatory leadership models, facilitating shared decision-making and fostering organizational resilience. Therefore, this work aimed to investigate the scientific production mapping the accumulated knowledge and current trends associated with leadership and learning communities in higher education, as documented in the Scopus database from 1989 to 2024. —examining all items using a customized bibliometric methodology. The sample consisted of 1,361 peer-reviewed articles in English and Spanish, identified by the Boolean search term "Leader*" AND "Learning Communit*". We analyzed productivity, co-authorship, and keyword co-occurrence using the Bibliometrix package in RStudio. A growing body of research describes leadership and learning communities as mutually constitutive mechanisms for education reform and improvement. The bibliometric analysis highlights underserved geographical areas and underscores the importance of fostering international collaborative research. JEL Codes: 039, C89, I23. Received: 16/04/2025. Accepted: 23/01/2026. Published: 10/06/2026.