Prospects: Reflecting back, looking forward

Abstract

I am pleased to introduce this ambitious and thought-provoking issue of Prospects, which inaugurates my appointment as the Director of the UNESCO International Bureau of Education (IBE) and Editor-in-Chief of the journal. Having served as a member of its Editorial Board for many years, I have already had the opportunity to closely witness its remarkable intellectual journey and development, and contribute actively to it. Thus, my new role of Editor-in-Chief comes as a natural next stage, one that aims at continuing to publish a journal whose high quality standards and distinctive profile, substance and identity make it a landmark among many other journals of comparative education. It also comes with the challenge to build a stronger, even more prestigious and globally visible journal. Its merits should extend beyond publishing sound peer-reviewed academic articles, to producing well-grounded, reliable work that responds to today’s educational questions and policy needs, with a special focus on curriculum-related issues. As we move toward making the IBE a global Center of Excellence, we need to reflect deeply about reorienting the journal so that it can contribute optimally to IBE’s core mandate and goals; key among them is strengthening the capacity of education systems to equitably provide high quality education and effective learning opportunities. This issue is a clear step in the new direction and illustrates our efforts to more effectively address IBE’s strategic goals and mandate. Key topics featured in this issue include education quality, equity, access to learning, teacher professionalism, community participation and youth labour market integration. The geographical coverage of the articles is notable; it includes Brazil, Cambodia, Colombia, China, Ghana, Kenya, Nepal and West Africa. The contributors to this issue are from a vast spectrum of cultures, represent different horizons of thought and belong to different generations. Despite these differences and the diversity of topics they address, the main themes of the articles are interwoven. A recurring