Reflecting on Benefits of Editing the Journal of Teacher Education
The Michigan State University (MSU) College of Education has served as editorial home of the Journal of Teacher Education (JTE) for almost six years. With the editorship have come benefits, both to the editorial leaders and to our college. To handle the large number of manuscripts that come to JTE each year, we recruited a team, with four faculty co-editors (all at MSU), a half-dozen or so faculty associate editors (some at MSU, some at other institutions), and a part-time staff member as managing editor. We also had a rotating annual appointment of a junior faculty member as assistant editor, and two part-time graduate assistants.
As a part of the editorial team, faculty members contributed to scholarship on teacher education by making decisions and providing guidance to authors, both of which ensured that the publications in JTE were substantial contributions to the field, using high quality scholarship to address important issues. Editorial team members also had opportunities to participate in writing the editorials included in each issues—editorials that were then frequently cited by other scholars.
The intellectual horizons of team members expanded, as they read submissions on broad range of topics, taking them beyond their own specializations. Team members also took part in selecting the topic and recruiting the speakers for a Deeper Dive special session at the AACTE Annual Meeting. In short, participating on the JTE editorial team was an outstanding opportunity for professional learning and a chance to shape the research-based national discussion of teacher education.
The benefits to faculty and graduate students described above would be reason enough for a college to decide to house JTE. In addition, hosting a leading journal like JTE is a visible marker that the college is committed to supporting high quality scholarship, in partnership with an important national organization.
As dean of the MSU College of Education, and one of the co-editors, I can attest to ways we,and I, have benefitted. It has been, to be sure, a great deal of work. But it’s also been richly rewarding.
AACTE is currently accepting proposals for a campus-based team to edit the Journal of Teacher Education (JTE) for the next 3-year term, commencing with the January/February 2022 issue. Proposals must be submitted online by October 1. Qualified teams from schools, colleges, and departments of education at AACTE member institutions may apply. Download the complete request for proposals, or enter the online submission site.
Tags: AACTE online resources, JTE, membership, research
