This study presents a bibliometric analysis that systematically examines the scientific literature published in the field of critical literacy (CL). Although research on critical literacy has evolved along three main axes—its theoretical frameworks, pedagogical practices, and social justice perspectives—these dimensions have rarely been analyzed using bibliometric methods. This gap has limited the visibility of academic trends and research voids within the field. The primary aim of the study is to map the development of CL research through seven specific questions concerning publication years, journals, countries, institutional collaborations, citation impacts, and key concepts. Bibliometric analysis was adopted as the research method, and data were retrieved in June 2025 from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection using the search term “critical literacy.” After filtering for English-language journal articles within the “Education Educational Research” category, a total of 1,033 studies were included in the analysis. The VOSviewer software was used to perform network and co-occurrence analyses. Findings revealed comprehensive patterns related to trends, regional and institutional differences, conceptual frameworks, and highly cited works in CL research. The results contribute to the literature by providing a holistic view of the field’s intellectual structure and evolution. The study concludes that future directions of critical literacy are likely to expand toward themes such as digital media, artificial intelligence, social inequalities, and refugee education. It emphasizes that systematic analyses of this nature are vital not only for advancing academic knowledge production but also for informing educational policies, and it recommends promoting interdisciplinary approaches in the field.