2012 — Letter from the Joint Editorsejed_1515 1..2

Dear Readers,We are pleased to welcome you to volume 47 of the European Journal of Education.At the start of this year, we would like to thank all our Board members andeditorial correspondents whose contributions to the Journal and proposals of newthemes and topics continue to nourish and enrich our discussions. We would alsolike to thank our dedicated publishing team at Wiley Blackwell. Since 2010, EJEhas been included in the ISI Journal Citation Index, which constitutes a significantmilestone for us. At the same time, we remain very aware that the quality of theJournal and the way it is judged by our peers go beyond citation indices and willalways continue to be highly dependent on the work of the guest editors andauthors. It also depends on our continuing capacity to commission and attract highquality articles that link research, development and policy in all fields of educationand lifelong learning with a view to explore and better understand the conse-quences and outcomes of educational research for policy-making, as well asidentify promising practices.

Volume 47 starts with the present issue, Russian Higher Education and thepost-Soviet Transition which was guest edited by W. John Morgan and GrigoriA. Kliucharev. The situation of higher education changed dramatically after 1989with the end of the Soviet Union, as the whole education system adjusted to newconditions and the need to identify a new social and economic role in Russia.Thisissue responds to fundamental questions raised by that shift about the purpose ofeducation and whom it should serve, its organisation and financing. The articlesfocus on the core of the modernisation policy, in particular access, quality andefficiency, as well as the influences of both internal social and economic needs andexternal pressures such as Europeanisation and globalisation.

The second issue, which will appear in June, is entitled The privatisation ofhigher education: private investment for the common good. It is guestedited by Georg Krücken and Katiah Serrano-Velarde. A seminar was organised inthe autumn of 2011 to discuss the papers for this issue. It was an event organisedunder the auspices of the 625th anniversary of Heidelberg University by theCentre for Social Investment and the Institute for Sociology. The issue addressesthe extent and the various forms of the privatisation of HE in a cross-nationalperspective, highlighting private investments as a new form of cost-sharing. Theimplications of the privatisation of higher education at the organisational level arealso explored. Focusing on the situation in Europe, this thematic dossier alsocontains articles on the US, China and Kenya, bringing in the global perspective.

Issue 3 (September 2012) will also feature articles on higher education and willbe guest edited by Barbara Kehm. Every year, we receive a large number ofunsolicited articles. We publish about 10-12 of them in Part II of the Journal, butperiodically, when there are articles on a similar theme, we choose to group theminto a thematic dossier in order to better explore different aspects of a shared areaof interest. This is the case this year for issue 3.

The final issue in 2012 will be on the topic of Early Childhood Education andCare and will be guest edited by Matthias Urban.We are very pleased to publish this

European Journal of Education, Vol. 47, No. 1, 2012

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issue, as it is the first time that the Journal has focused specifically on this veryimportant field. A wide range of interconnected socio-economic, educational andcivil rights-based rationales for investing in high quality services for young childrenand their families has been laid out in European and international policy docu-ments. This issue of the Journal addresses current European trends and develop-ments in this field from three interconnected perspectives providing a platform forexploring policies, practices and theoretical underpinnings. The articles approach theirspecific topics within a shared framework that acknowledges that education isinevitably political and value-based — which creates the need for constant demo-cratic dialogue. They do not promote one ‘right’ answer to ECEC but a range ofperspectives aimed at exploring the critical questions that need to be asked inresearch, policy and practice.

Looking forward to 2013, the following thematic issues are under preparation:— ICT for Learning, Education and Training— Adult learning.

Other themes under discussion for 2013 and beyond are:— Early school leaving:— Learning ecologies for LLL:— Literacy and multiple literacies for the 21st century— Open educational resources and the implications for policy and new learning

models— Leadership (in times of scarcity). What role for education leadership in the

effective implementation of reforms?— Where is education research going?— The role of university rankings and their consequences— The role of foundations (or other non-state funders) in supporting innovation

in education through the programmes they implement or support.— Impacts and consequences of international surveys— Education and migration.

We welcome submissions of articles on all the above themes and are always happyto hear from readers about themes and topics they would like to see explored.Wewould like to take this opportunity to thank colleagues who submit articles forreview, as well as the reviewers who are an important factor in ensuring the qualityof the Journal. Notes for Contributors can be found on the Journal’s webpage andthe Joint Editors are very pleased to help with information or advice before articlesare submitted (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1465-3435/homepage/ForAuthors.html).

We very much hope that you will enjoy volume 47 of the European Journal ofEducation.

Joint Editors:Jean Gordongordon@eiesp.fr

Jean-Pierre Jalladejpjallade@club-internet.fr

Assistant Editor:Christina Keyeseje@eiesp.fr

For more information on the Journal, please visit the Wiley-Blackwell website:http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1465-3435

The Journal is edited by the European Institute of Education and Social Policy(EIESP) (www.eiesp.org).

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