Change often begins or is given wings where ideas are born and made 鈥� in academia itself. Witness the bold makeover that, during the past year, has been in the works at the (TCR), the College鈥檚 prestigious 120-year-old education journal 鈥� a process intended to help launch a sea-change in the nature of academic research.
鈥淭丑别&苍产蝉辫;Record calls itself 鈥榯he voice of scholarship in education,鈥� but what voices are we actually representing?鈥� asked TCR鈥檚 new Executive Editor, Michelle Knight-Manuel, Professor of Education, upon taking over the publication late in 2019.
In the past, according to a content review initiated by Knight-Manuel 鈥� a former middle school ESL/French teacher and college advisor whose own research has focused largely on the experiences and needs of immigrant students 鈥� the answer was: primarily authors from high-profile American research universities who focused chiefly on American K鈥�12 education. Missing were researchers and educators working at 鈥� or affiliated with 鈥� community colleges, institutions primarily serving people of color, public school districts, research institutes and community organizations.
That picture emphatically changed with the January 2021 issue of the Record 鈥� the first with main feature content chosen by Knight-Manuel and her staff.
Articles in the new issue included:
鈥淭hey #Woke: How Black Students in an After-School Community-Based Program Manifest Critical Consciousness鈥�;
鈥淚nvisible Shifts In and Out of the Classroom: Dynamics of Teacher Salary and Teacher Supply in Urban China鈥�;
鈥淎re Progressive Texts Necessarily Disruptive? Investigating Teacher Engagement with Gendered Textbooks in Ugandan Classrooms鈥�;
鈥淲hite Supremacy and Teacher Education: Balancing Pedagogical Tensions when Teaching about Race鈥�;
And 鈥淏efore the Ad: How Departments Generate Hiring Priorities that Support or Avert Faculty Diversity.鈥�
鈥淲e set out to expand our focus to post-secondary education and international education, and incorporate perspectives such as feminist post-structuralism, critical race theory, and equity and social justice,鈥� says Knight-Manuel. 鈥淥ur authors include not only full professors, but postdoctoral students, independent researchers, graduate students and assistant professors.鈥�