Production of educational theory doctoral theses in Spain (2001–2015)

The essential function of scientific disciplines is to generate knowledge using the scientific method. In a context characterised by acknowledgement of methodological complementarity and the existence of innumerable mechanisms for production (articles, theses…) and dissemination (databases, platforms…), production is a measure of any given discipline’s normative development and projection. As a result of this situation, in Pedagogy—and, more specifically, in Educational Theory—we can witness a growing concern with systematising knowledge in a complex and dynamic context and based on reference frameworks. Therefore, this article aims to describe scientific production in Educational Theory, with the intention of discovering the creation and dissemination processes involved in theses retrieved from the Spanish doctoral theses database TESEO (2001–2015). A descriptive-comparative census study was carried out, with a total of n = 229 sampling units. The results show the following: thematic axes, which categorise thesis content into groups, are present; dissemination is influenced by the non-specific use of keywords, as well as by the area’s organisation and structure in different universities; there are no statistically significant differences in terms of author gender. In conclusion, we can identify an ever greater intention to provide the area with more scientific content but little concern with increasing this content’s visibility in databases such as TESEO. All in all, research production in Spain relating to Educational Theory is a good representative sample of researchers’ efforts to project their interest in discovering, understanding and improving education. Therefore, special care should be taken when compiling production data in databases.