JOURNAL OF PEDAGOGY
The role we play in the scientific community
Throughout its existence, Journal of Pedagogy – for many years, the unique publication of its kind – has gathered in its pages some of the most prestigious names among the Romanian and foreign experts and stakeholders from the education field.
Then…
In the beginning, the themes addressed by the articles published in the Journal of Pedagogy were meant to present the main issues of Romanian education and to make known the positive experiences of schools. The journal also published supplements for preschool education, for school and professional counselling, and for teaching social sciences in school. Every year a selective volume was edited in French, with summaries in Russian, English and German. At the time, the journal maintained connections with similar publications from over 20 countries.
An important role was played by the Journal of Pedagogy in the field of promoting innovative ideas in pedagogical sciences. Thus, if during 1952-1963 the texts of the Soviet pedagogues were imposed as reference systems for the ideas promoted by the journal, during 1964-1969 the publication became a way of promoting among experts and analysing the main theoretical concepts in the field of pedagogy. Afterwards, during 1970-1979, the journal aimed to contribute to the fundamentals of the education sciences in the Romanian context, by gathering the greatest names of pedagogues, psychologists and intellectuals in Romania at that time.
After 1981, the Journal of Pedagogy has been subject to intense political scrutiny, culminating in 1983 when the Institute of Pedagogical Sciences was abolished (following the political scandal known as “transcendental meditation”). The IPS was outlawed from 1983-1989, yet this did not prevent the appearance of the journal under the aegis of the Ministry of Education.
The re-establishment of the current Institute of Education Sciences in 1990 led to a new series of the Journal of Pedagogy centered on a new approach. In the early 1990s, there were significant contributions that proposed a theoretical analysis of education from a multidisciplinary perspective (on the basis of acquisitions offered by social sciences), a critical evaluation of topics of general interest or an attempt to build a coherent vision of education in the new post ʹ89 context, in the transition from pedagogy to education sciences. Also, certain articles or even journal numbers were devoted to innovative issues in the context of the Romanian reform, becoming reference systems for implementing the main reform projects of the Romanian education.
And now… Aims and scope
In the recent years, there have been more frequent articles that address “technical” priorities and multiple aspects of applied research such as: organizational culture, classroom management, curriculum, educational policies, school counseling and training – areas that are in the research area of the current Institute of Education Sciences. Therefore, at present, the Journal of Pedagogy has four sections with the following types of articles from the field of education sciences:
- theoretical approaches in education (fundamental research, educational policy analysis, European benchmarks, comparative research, etc.);
- research, intervention models and best practices in education;
- education agenda (case studies, interviews, events, presentations of local / national / international educational projects, excerpts from doctoral theses, presentations of teaching tools and materials, feasibility studies, etc.);
- reviews of relevant national and international works.