Getting Established...

Getting Established... In my previous editorial I stated that I wanted to discuss some of the issues surrounding journal editing, and the role of academic journals in general. I thought, somewhat naively, that I would have the housekeeping details of editing mastered by now, and could turn to these more substantive issues. I have learned that a journal editor's job is never done, and there are myriad details to be tended. I mentioned to Margaret Hunt, managing editor at Purdue University Press, that I didn't know if I could come up with an editor's essay in time, and I wondered out loud whether each issue needed such. I am glad she convinced me to not miss this opportunity. In addition to a continuing conversation about the work done by academic journals, specifically this one, I want to introduce the articles for each issue to you. Last year, I engaged in a series of spirited emails with Ralph Page about my new position as editor. Ralph recently retired after many years from the Department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana /Champaign, and edited Educational Theory, one of the best-known journals in the areas of social foundations of education and educational policy, from 1983-1991.1 had heard about Ralph from many people, especially my former colleague Christine Shea, before I had the pleasure to meet him, and came to realize the effect he has had upon not only the fields of what we at Purdue call "cultural foundations," but more especially, through his work with countless authors and reviewers, a continuing narrative about what it means to be a journal editor. Ralph enjoined me to think of a journal as more than a place where the "best" articles get published, and the field, in my case, Dewey studies, is defined. Ralph thinks a journal can be, as he so generously put it, "a site of interchange among actual authors and actual audiences." I thought about that and agreed that many people may not think of journals as sites for exploration, for the education of the authors, but more simply as gate keeping devices for the disciplines involved, and as finished products of scholarship. Ralph reminded me of the primacy of keeping the audience in mind when considering how to put together an issue. He told me that he asked himself the question: Will this audience be better off if they have a chance to read this article ? That intrigued me, and I thought along with Ralph about what "better off' means in this context. We decided that "better off' may mean that an article raises neglected topics or a marginalized point of view, and thus enlarges the field of discourse. Or, more directly and personally, the audience may be better off by hearing a crucial statement by an up and coming junior scholar on the cusp of tenure. "Better off' E&C/Education and Culture 21(1) (2005): 1-2 • 1 2 + From the Editor for Ralph did not mean merely some notion of "excellence" or "cutting edge," determined by a supposedly unbiased and distinguished review panel. These is­ sues are not excluded, but a host of other issues, some idiosyncratic to the editor, his or her board, the journal at that particular time, may be considered. In this issue, William Gaudelli discusses Dewey's winter sojourns in Key West, Florida. Gaudelli uses the lens of "place theory" to understand how Dewey's writings may have been affected by his time in Key West. Gaudelli's piece complements the article by Doug Simpson and Kathleen Foley about Dewey's other vacation home, in Hubbards, Nova Scotia, in issue 20(2). My col­ league in cultural· foundations and board member Anne Knupfer looks at Howalton School in Chicago, continuing her research into African American education in Chicago. She shows how the school drew from the "the DuBoisian model of the 'talented tenth,' . . . [and] a Deweyan model, which emphasized strong community-school collaboration." Jessica Ching-Sze Wang looks at what Dewey learned on his trips to China. She asserts that "the existing literature has focused exclusively on how Dewey influenced China, rather than what Dewey learned...