Transmedia digital narratives in mathematics teaching in educational contexts: a systematic, bibliometric, and structural review (2014–2024)

Introduction This article presents a systematic review of the literature on the use of transmedia digital narratives in mathematics teaching in educational contexts in the period 2014–2024. The relevance of this research in educational contexts lies in the evidence it provides on the transformative potential of transmedia narratives as an innovative resource that articulates cognitive, socio-emotional, and digital dimensions of learning. Methods The review was developed following the PRISMA methodology, which enabled the refinement of a final corpus of 22 publications from records retrieved from two academic databases, ERIC and Web of Science. A quantitative and qualitative synthesis was conducted to analyze temporal trends, narrative types, pedagogical approaches, and reported learning outcomes. Results The analysis shows that this is an emerging field, with moderate but irregular growth in scientific production. Four main types of transmedia digital narratives were identified: (1) digital storytelling, (2) comics and graphic narratives, (3) gamification and interactive worlds, and (4) audiovisual and multimedia resources. These narratives were associated with cognitive outcomes such as conceptual understanding, creativity, and problem solving, as well as socio-emotional outcomes including motivation, self-confidence, participation, and reduced mathematics anxiety. Discussion The findings indicate that transmedia digital narratives operate within pedagogical approaches such as constructivism, situated learning, and digital literacy, supporting learning in interactive, multimodal, and culturally diverse environments. While the results highlight the educational potential of these approaches, limitations were also identified in the reviewed literature, including the small number of studies and the heterogeneity of methodologies, populations, and educational levels, which restrict strong comparisons. This underscores the need for broader and more longitudinal research on the role of transmedia narratives in mathematics education.