Issues In Educational Research, 6(1), 1996, iii-vii.

Editorial

Sid Bourke
University of Newcastle


Readers may have noted a far-too-long interval between this and the previous issue of Issues in Educational Research. Following the guest editorship of one excellent issue by Mick Dunkin, I took on the editorship during 1996. Although I do not wish to get involved in excuses for the long delay in producing this my first issue, some explanation is owed. Basically the problems have been: first, a complete lack of manuscripts in the drawer or even in the review process on taking over and second, moving the Journal to a fully-refereed one without an existing list of proven, regular referees to read manuscripts as they slowly came in. End of my problems.

I am delighted to note that the consortium of Institutes responsible for this Journal has been increased by the addition of the Victorian Institute of Educational Research to the Institutes of New South Wales, Northern Territory, South Australian and Western Australia. This augurs well for the future of the journal in terms both of contributions and readership. Manuscripts are beginning to come in, but may I take this opportunity to encourage you to send in your work for review and publication.

There is also a new Editorial Advisory Board, listed [below], who have already assisted me in the early stages of determining overall policy for the journal and in identifying and contacting reviewers. Fortunately for me there are some "old" names there as well as "new" ones. Dr John McCormick has also agreed to be Business Manager.

I believe it was essential to move Issues in Educational Research to become a fully refereed journal. Apart from anything else, the way in which research publications are counted in determining the research quantum funding received by universities effectively forced the decision if quality manuscripts were to be available to this journal. Although all articles published in the journal are now fully refereed, the editorial policy remains one of assisting researchers, especially novice researchers, to have their work published. I have been strongly supported in this aim by the Editorial Advisory Board and by the reviewers whose many comments clearly have the intent of indicating to authors how their manuscripts can be improved to publication standard.

Given that the discipline or area serviced by this journal is Education, submissions of manuscripts in any research tradition and using any type of methodology are equally welcome. Please see the notes for intending authors on page 38 of this issue for information about preferred length, format and style.

Finally, let me turn to the articles published in this issue. They exhibit a broad variety of topic and approach to research, and clearly no theme is intended. Anne Bloomfield invites us to dream of excellence through research into the arts with her, but concludes with a very practical framework for expanding research in the area. Brian Hemmings' concern for achievement in the senior secondary school led him to a longitudinal study of factors affecting achievement and the testing of a model which explains a considerable proportion of the variation in achievement found. Denis Mahony's field study of environmental idealogies held by the rural population of the Williams River catchment area draws attention to the need to use environmental educational methods which clearly recognise contextual knowledge. The paper by Magdalena Mok and Marcellin Flynn relating school size to academic achievement in Year 12 draws on information from a large sample of almost 5000 students attending 44 Catholic schools in NSW. After controlling for student and other school differences, students at larger schools were found to have higher achievement. I hope to have a follow-up paper in the next issue looking at the relationship between school size and student affect. Finally, Tim Wyatt's paper concerning school effectiveness research is most timely. From the historical background presented, he suggests that school effectiveness research, as it has been carried out, may have passed its zenith and recommends other approaches to school improvement. Although most of the papers are longer than I intended, I think the quality shines through. I hope you, the readers, will find them as interesting as I do.

Sid Bourke
Editor


[ IIER Vol 6, 1996 ] [ IIER Home ]

About IIER 1996

Editor

Professor Sid Bourke
Faculty of Education
University of Newcastle
Callaghan, NSW 2308
Ph: 049 215 901 Fax: 049 216992
email: edsfb@cc.newcastle.edu.au

IIER Editorial Advisory Board 1996

Associate Professor Brian Devlin
Northern Territory University
Darwin, NT 0909
Ph: 08 8946 6105 Fax: 08 8946 6151
email: bdevlin@banda.ntu.edu.au
Dr John Hall
Faculty of Education
Curtin University of Technology
GPO Box U1987, Perth WA 6001
Ph: 08 9266 2177 Fax: 08 9266 2547
email: hallj@educ.curtin.edu.au
Dr John McCormick
School of Education Studies
University of NSW
Sydney, NSW 2052
Ph: 02 9385 4917 Fax: 02 9385 6153
email: j.mccormick@unsw.edu.au
Associate Professor Glenn Rowley
Faculty of Education
Monash University
Clayton, VIC 3168
Ph: 03 9905 2830 Fax: 03 9905 1595
email: glenn.rowley@education.monash.edu.au
Ms Maxine Shepherd
Graduate School of Education
University of Adelaide
Adelaide, SA 5005
Ph: 08 8379 0157 Fax: 08 8303 4455
email: iris@arts.adelaide.edu.au
Book Review Editor
Andrew Taggart
Faculty of Education
Edith Cowan University
Mt Lawley WA 6050
Ph: 08 9370 6806 Fax: 08 9370 6664
email: a.taggart@cowan.edu.au
Business Manager
Dr John McCormick
School of Education Studies
University of NSW
Sydney, NSW 2052
Ph: 02 385 4917 Fax: 02 385 6153
email: j.mccormick@unsw.edu.au
Subscriptions To the Business Manager

All articles published in this journal have been subjected to a blind peer-review process.

The views and styles expressed in the articles in this publication are those of the individual authors and are not necessarily shared by the editor or members of the editorial advisory board.

Copyright © 1996 The Institutes for Educational Research in NSW, NT, SA, Victoria and WA

Published by the Institutes for Educational Research in NSW, NT, SA, Victoria and WA. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior written permission from the Institutes. Desktop publishing (1997) by Clare McBeath. Printed (1997) by Printing Services, Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia.

ISSN 0313-7155

Please cite as: Bourke, S. (1996). Editorial. Issues In Educational Research, 6(1), iii-vii. http://www.iier.org.au/iier6/editorial.html


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