Dear Colleagues,
Welcome to the new home of Learning for Democracy: A Journal of Thought and Practice. We have recently completed our transition from the United Kingdom location at the University of Brighton, where Dr. Joanna Swann and colleagues Drs. Tyrell Burgess and John Pratt founded LFD. Noteworthy in the development and high quality of the journal is the excellent work of Brian Marley as Reviews Editor and Editorial Assistant.
I am extremely grateful to our journal founders for helping me during this time of transition. Due to their leadership and hard work, the editorial advisory and review boards were able to begin their work by reviewing many thoughtful and exciting manuscripts. In this process, the journal has become a venture close to our hearts. I also thank the administrators at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville who worked many hours generously providing guidance and support. No editor could possibly ask for a more gracious beginning to her tenure.
Our work on the journal continues as we are hosted by Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, where I serve on the faculty of the School of Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. I am pleased to report that our founding editors will remain on the board serving in various advisory capacities. We will continue as an international journal serving the vision described so beautifully by Joanna Swann in the first issue in 2005:
How can we encourage democracy? This is the practical problem addressed by Learning for Democracy. The journal is premised on the idea that learning-informal and formal, at home, in school and in the workplace-is central to any solution (p.1).
So that we might reach a broader readership, the journal is now expanded to include two sections. Section One is devoted to articles reporting theoretical, historical and philosophical perspectives on learning for democracy. Section Two, Theory into Practice, is devoted to articles reporting empirical research, as well as articles, discussions, reports or notes about ways democratic thought might be applied in a variety of settings, such as schools or cities.
I am pleased to report the addition of two excellent Associate Editors of LFD, each responsible for a journal section. Section One Associate Editor is Glen Hudak, University of North Carolina-Greensboro, USA gmhudak@uncg.edu. Section Two Associate Editor is C.P. Gause, University of North Carolina-Greensboro, USA gmhudak@uncg.edu. Please feel free to contact Glenn or C.P. with your ideas for articles. Glen is in the process of developing an interview series. For updates on this initiative see our website www.siue.edu/lfd.
I deeply appreciate the many individuals who have agreed to work on the Advisory and Review Boards of LFD. I extend my personal gratitude to our readership, journal contributors and subscribers. You continue to help us move forth with this important work and enlighten paths we might never have considered. Joanna Swann reported the following Popperian quotation framing for us prescient possibilities:
I may be wrong and you may be right, and by an effort, we may get nearer to the truth.
-- Karl Popper
The Open Society and Its Enemies, Vol. II Chapter 24, I (in LFD, 2005, p.1)
Caroline R. Pryor, Editor
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
2008
