Engineering education research in European Journal of Engineering Education and Journal of Engineering Education: citation and reference discipline analysis

The authors, citations and content of European Journal of Engineering Education (EJEE) and Journal of Engineering Education (JEE) in 1973 (JEE, 1975 EJEE), 1983, 1993, 2003, and available 2013 issues were analysed. Both journals transitioned from house organs to become engineering education research (EER) journals, although JEE transitioned first. In this process the number of citations rose, particularly of education and psychology sources; the percentage of research articles increased markedly as did the number of reference disciplines. The number of papers per issue, the number of single author papers, and the citations of science and engineering sources decreased. EJEE has a very broad geographic spread of authors while JEE authors are mainly US based. A ‘silo’ mentality where general engineering education researchers do not communicate with EER researchers in different engineering disciplines is evident. There is some danger that EER may develop into a silo that does not communicate with technically oriented engineering professors.     

Challenges and promises of overcoming epistemological and methodological partiality: Advancing engineering education through acceptance of diverse ways of knowing

The purpose of this paper is to explore some challenges and promises when the epistemological diversity embedded in qualitative research traditions is introduced to research communities with one dominant research paradigm, such as engineering education. Literature is used from other fields and empirical data are used from engineering education, including the practices of the European Journal of Engineering Education and the Journal of Engineering Education, with the expectation that the ideas that are presented are relevant to a broad range of education disciplines. A number of challenges are identified as the epistemological diversity of qualitative research is introduced to the primarily positivist field of engineering education. Ultimately, embracing epistemological diversity holds the promise of researchers being able to ask: ‘What questions and answers become possible from these newly created positions and what can be learned from these alternative approaches?’.     

The sound of silence! Reflections on inclusion and exclusion in the field of gender and education

The aim of this article is to start a debate about the inclusiveness/exclusiveness of the field of gender and education, and what change might be possible. While we focus on the field of gender and education as a whole (including its journals and academic practices), our main sources of evidence are our own experiences as gender researchers on different sides of the Anglophone divide, and a small survey of articles in this journal, Gender and Education, chosen because it is the main journal of choice for those hoping to make a contribution to the field. We examined articles published in three years, 1990, 1998 and 2007, in order to identify if and how the journal (and hence the field) has changed in orientation over time. Following a discussion of the survey outcomes, we draw attention in particular to the journal’s Anglophone orientation and the implications this has for the field as a whole. We further argue for greater reflexivity about our and other’s practices as feminist academics, and propose some strategies for action with the aim of making the field more inclusive.     

Trends of Science Education Research: An Automatic Content Analysis

This study used scientometric methods to conduct an automatic content analysis on the development trends of science education research from the published articles in the four journals of International Journal of Science Education, Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Research in Science Education, and Science Education from 1990 to 2007. The multi-stage clustering technique was employed to investigate with what topics, to what development trends, and from whose contribution that the journal publications constructed as a science education research field. This study found that the research topic of Conceptual Change & Concept Mapping was the most studied topic, although the number of publications has slightly declined in the 2000’s. The studies in the themes of Professional Development, Nature of Science and Socio-Scientific Issues, and Conceptual Chang and Analogy were found to be gaining attention over the years. This study also found that, embedded in the most cited references, the supporting disciplines and theories of science education research are constructivist learning, cognitive psychology, pedagogy, and philosophy of science.     

FUNDAMENTALIST EDUCATION: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS

A comparison is made of the contents and contributors to the British Journal of Religious Education (UK) and Religious Education (North America). A content analysis of each journal was conducted for a 10-year period between 1992–2002. A total of 20 volumes were analyzed, with attention given to types of research published, composition of review boards, authors' gender, affiliation, religious identity, position, geographic location, and number of contributions. The question of what each journal can learn from the other is addressed, and implications for the field are drawn.     

The position of Distance Education in a journal network

ABSTRACT

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the journal Distance Education (DE), this study explores the position of this journal in a network of open and distance education, educational technology and learning design publications. A citation network analysis was undertaken to explore the scholarly communication network of distance education, using articles published in DE from 1980 onwards (n = 656), alongside references cited in those articles (n = 16,729), as well as articles (n = 6003) and associated references (n = 164,444) published in 22 leading journals indexed in the Web of Science between 2014 and 2019. A distinction is made between a narrower (intra-DE) and a wider (inter-journal) distance education network. The study reveals DE’s relationship to the wider educational technology community over time and identifies the most prolific journals and authors in this network.     

Higher Education Literature Revisited: Citation Patterns Examined

The discourse of the field of higher education is complex, as is its analysis. Citation analysis is means of examining communicative processes. This study investigates citations in the papers of three core journals in higher education, Research in Higher Education, Review of Higher Education, and Journal of Higher Education. The results demonstrate that citation practices have remained relatively stable over time with regard to the format of cited items and the people and sources cited. The consistency applies, even with the electronic availability of a greater amount, and greater diversity, of materials. Some differences from past practices are also presented.     

Science education journal/periodical reading patterns of senior level undergraduate education students at the university of Oklahoma, 1973-1982

This study analyzed 103 articles from journals/periodicals related to science education submitted to the author over a period often years. This study sought to determine which journals/ periodicals were most popular, as indicated by frequency of reportings. It, secondarily, attempted to verify or refute the paucity of research data currently available related to journal/ periodical reading patterns on the part of teachers, specifically those in secondary schools. Finally, it attempted to study reading patterns within specific secondary school teaching areas, about which this author was unable to find any research. The findings indicated that there were several popular science education-related journals/periodicals. American Biology Teacher, the Journal of Research in Science Teaching and Science Education were the top three journals/ periodicals reported. Most of the findings of earlier research were confirmed.     

Gender and Education: a view from Latin America

Gender and Education publishes articles that are considered as key references in the field, but at present the journal has limited connection with Gender Studies in Latin America. To understand this, all the titles and abstracts of the issues published between 2011 and 2013 were read. In this period, Gender and Education published 141 original articles, and among them only four were about Latin America. Altering this situation demands specific actions, including those that the Editorial Board is already planning. However, such reading brought to light many other questions that might be analysed in the context of the North/South division of intellectual labour. This essay discusses only one of them: the fact that articles about countries in the global South often identify their location in their titles, while this is rare among papers about metropolitan countries. An apparently simple change is suggested: that the authors question themselves about how far their ideas are understandable to readers from other parts of the world.     

An analysis of research studies in which “homemade” achievement instruments were utilized

This article will have as its focus a problem described by Anderson, namely, the quality of the construction and reporting of research that contains “homemade” achievement tests. The current status of homemade achievement tests was examined in this study. Research reports in two science education journals were analyzed, using Anderson's eight categories of information that a high quality research report should include. The journals examined were Journal of Research in Science Teaching and Science Education from January 1975 to January 1980. The findings indicate that reliability estimates and the procedures for selecting test items were mentioned more frequently in the science education journals than in Anderson's study. However, there was little or no improvement in describing the relation of test items to instruction. These findings should be of interest both to researchers who are utilizing “homemade” achievement tests in their studies and to journal panels who are reviewing studies for publication.     

Educational journals and worldwide circulation of pedagogical knowledge: Brazil and Portugal (1921–1935)

This article focuses on the circulation of educational models between Portugal and Brazil (from 1920 to 1935), within a broader context of an intensive international transfer of ‘ways of thinking’ about education. It describes and analyses the results from research on two educational journals, one Portuguese (Revista Escolar) the other from the Brazilian State of Sao Paulo (Education). Central to this text is the notion that educational journals constitute important vehicles for the production and regulation of knowledge as well as for the formation of specialized fields in education. Thus, the article gives particular attention to the selective mobilization of foreign educational models (countries, authors and educational organizations), within a framework of analysis committed to the articulation of the processes of diffusion and reception of educational knowledge. The article presents the characteristics of both journals, in the face of those (geo‐political and intellectual) international references, and compares the relations of affiliation and affinity with foreign models displayed by each journal. The analysis shows: (i) the centrality of authors and organizations associated with the New Education in the promotion of knowledge that proposes to mediate scientific production and pedagogical practice; (ii) the existence of differences regarding the foreign countries that are taken as models for education improvement at a national scale; (iii) the presence of different spaces for the (worldwide) circulation of pedagogical models (the New Education circuit and the Latin‐American circuit); (iv) the scarce referencing of the other ‘who speaks the same language’. Results are discussed by taking into consideration their relationships with the structuration of pedagogicalal discourses and organisations, in both national and international spheres.     

The Distance Education journal at 40: crossroads and horizons

ABSTRACT

The development of distance education (DE) over the last 40 years is compared with the evolving content of the Distance Education journal during the same period. DE in general has been described as encountering a series of crossroad decision points, and as identifying numerous optimistic horizons beyond them. The decisions made and horizons sought have not always been prudent, however, and the journal’s critical approach and logical sequence of priorities have encouraged DE to avoid ill-considered options. Currently, the journal is challenged with helping the field to overcome mainstream educators’ lack of awareness of the traditional DE literature, media, and methods, and negative reactions to the effects of the massive open online course (MOOC). The approach taken by the journal during its first 40 years will help to overcome such problems and to keep the field on track.     

Institutional Research Productivity in Science Education for the 1990s: Top 30 Rankings

The purpose of this study was to identify the major science education programs in the United States, where the science education researchers published their research. This research is the first study of the scholarly productivity of science education programs at domestic institutions of higher education. Each issue of the eight research journals (Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Science Education, International Journal of Science Education, Journal of Science Teacher Education, School Science and Mathematics, Journal of Computers in Math and Science Teaching, Journal of Science Education and Technology, and Journal of Elementary Science Education) published in the 1990s provided the author(s) and their institutional affiliation. The resultant ranking of raw and weighted counts for the top 30 science educations programs shows variation in journals where research was published. Overall, regardless whether the total number of publications (raw) or weighted rating there was 90% agreement among top 10 and 70% agreement among the bottom 10. Potential explanations for variations and uses for rankings are discussed.     

Moral education trends over 40 years: A content analysis of the Journal of Moral Education (1971–2011)

In 2011 the Journal of Moral Education (JME) celebrated its 40th anniversary of publication. It seemed appropriate to examine and reflect on the JME’s achievements by reviewing its evolution and contribution to the emerging field of moral education and development. Moral education trends, as reflected in the 945 articles published in JME from 1971 to 2011, were investigated by content analysis. The research objectives were: to discover the trends in moral education as represented by published articles and special issues (by analysis of disciplinary approaches, key topics, research methodologies and age-related educational levels) and to examine the international and gender-related development of the journal and the influence of its contributors (by analysis of first authors and editorial board members). The findings identify important concerns, key research topics and neglected areas in moral education and development. Analysis offers an insight into the contribution of JME as the main international interdisciplinary journal in this field, to the history of moral education, to theory and practice and in the changing socio-cultural contexts of the past 40 years. Discussion of the findings is offered, limitations are acknowledged and implications for future directions for the journal considered.     

Research on Children’s Play: Analysis of Developmental and Early Education Journals from 2005 to 2007

Our review examined four early childhood journals (Early Child Development and Care, Early Childhood Education Journal, Journal of Research in Childhood Education, and Early Childhood Research Quarterly) and four developmental science journals (Child Development, Developmental Psychology, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, and Merrill Palmer Quarterly) from 2005 to 2007. Only 57 articles out of over 1,000 (conservative estimate) included the term ‘play’ in the title, abstract or as a key word. Of these 57 articles, only 19 were primarily focused on play, 16 from ECE journals and only three from developmental science journals (Z = 2.43, p < .05). While the ECE journals drew implications for practice, the developmental science journals did not. Seven ECE journal articles dealt with the concept of play in education and four other ECE journal articles covered play and literacy. The findings suggest the need for more careful use of the term play in early education and child development studies and a reevaluation of rationales and methods for its study.     

Academic sell-out: how an obsession with metrics and rankings is damaging academia

Increasingly, academics have to demonstrate that their research has academic impact. Universities normally use journal rankings and journal impact factors to assess the research impact of individual academics. More recently, citation counts for individual articles and the h-index have also been used to measure the academic impact of academics. There are, however, several serious problems with relying on journal rankings, journal impact factors and citation counts. For example, articles without any impact may be published in highly ranked journals or journals with high impact factor, whereas articles with high impact could be published in lower ranked journals or journals with low impact factor. Citation counts can also be easily gamed and manipulated, and the h-index disadvantages early career academics. This paper discusses these and several other problems and suggests alternatives such as post-publication peer review and open-access journals.     

Research on mathematics education in China in the last decade: A review of journal articles

This article reviews literatures on mathematics education in China in the last decade. It focuses on papers that were published after 2000, and Chinese Social Science Citation Index (CSSCI). Some influential journals in the field of mathematics education, such as the Journal of Mathematics Education and the Mathematics Instruction were also reviewed. The author shares in this article with international scholars the most recent research in the field of Chinese mathematics education. Mathematics education in China mainly focuses on the essence of mathematics classroom instruction, student learning of mathematics, mathematics teacher education, and its curriculum reforms.     

Elementary science education library resources in graduate and undergraduate teacher education programs of new England

The purpose of this study was to compare elementary science education library resources available in graduate and undergraduate teacher education institutions in New England. A 31-item survey was sent to teacher education institutions certified to prepare elementary teachers. The survey had four components: (1) services (i.e., ERIC, computer search, etc.), (2) journal holdings/science (i.e., Science and Children, Science Education, etc.), and nonscience (i.e., Reading Teacher, Instructor, etc.), (3) resources available (i.e., elementary science textbooks, audio-visual materials, computer software, etc.), and (4) an open-ended question about what major resources were needed to help prepare preservice students to teach science. There was a 72% return rate from the 87 institutions. Data were analyzed by the FREQUENCIES and ONEWAY subprograms of SPSSX. Less than 34% of the non-graduate libraries had ERIC microfiche available, Dissertation Abstracts, and computer search capabilities services. There was significant difference between graduate and nongraduate institutions journal holdings for science education journals and indexes. The surveyed libraries had more elementary science textbooks published prior to 1980 than those published after 1980 and were severely lacking in computer software.