Editorial: Publishing in Studies in Philosophy and Education

Abstract

Academic journals perform a double role. On the one hand they represent a particular field or area of scholarship and research; on the other hand they intervene in the field by representing the field in a particular way and by being open to contributions that challenge existing definitions of what the field is about. Sometimes such contributions challenge the boundaries of the field in an explicit manner, but more often than not such shifts occur over time and only gradually open up new areas of scholarship and research. Particularly in the humanities and social sciences such shifts are less of a revolutionary and more of an evolutionary nature (see Toulmin 1972). Journal editors occupy an interesting position in relation to this. Since they generally rely on unsolicited manuscripts and the outcomes of peer review, they have limited opportunity to steer a field in a particular direction. In this regard their role is more that of a facilitator and intermediary, albeit that there is some scope, particularly through special issues, to highlight or promote particular areas of scholarship. Whereas some academic journals focus more narrowly on a particular area and, within this, sometimes also on a particular approach within the field, Studies in Philosophy and Education has, from its inception in 1960 onwards, always had the explicit ambition not to be the expression of any one philosophical or theoretical school or cultural tradition. Being an international journal, Studies in Philosophy and Education always also has had the ambition to be inclusive of a wide range of different approaches to, and understandings of ‘the field.’ One understanding of the field sees the philosophical engagement with educational issues as a form of applied or practical philosophy. Hence the starting point for educational philosophy lies in the discipline of philosophy, which is also thought to set the standards for what counts as ‘good’ or ‘proper’ philosophy of education. Such a view is particularly prominent in the Anglo-American world and has played an important role in the establishment of the study of education at university level (see Peters 1966; Tibble 1966). But the Anglo-American ‘construction’ of the study of education in which this particular conception of philosophy of education has its place, is by no means the only way in