Daniella J. Forster

Collective writing: An inquiry into praxis

This is the second text in the series collectively written by members of the Editors’ Collective, which comprises a series of individual and collaborative reflections upon the experience of contributing to the previous and first text written by the Editors’ Collective: ‘Towards a Philosophy of Academic Publishing.’ In the article, contributors reflect upon their experience of collective writing and summarize the main themes and challenges. They show that the act of collective writing disturbs the existing systems of academic knowledge creation, and link these disturbances to the age of the digital reason. They conclude that the collaborative and collective action is a thing of learning-by- doing, and that collective writing seems to offer a possible way forward from the co-opting of academic activities by economics. Through detaching knowledge creation from economy, collaborative and collective writing address the problem of forming new collective intelligences.

Is peer review in academic publishing still working

ABSTRACT Peer review is central to academic publishing. Yet for many it is a mysterious and contentious practice, which can cause distress for both reviewers, and those whose work is reviewed. This paper, produced by the Editors’ Collective, examines the past and future of peer review in academic publishing. The first sections consider how peer review has been defined and practised in changing academic contexts, and its educational significance in the development of scholarship. The paper then explores major historical and contemporary issues around identity, diversity, anonymity, and the review process, and the related power of editors versus reviewers in academic publishing. Finally, the paper discusses the case of new scholars as reviewers engaging in neoliberal labour, before concluding with some brief recommendations based on our analysis.

Antipodean Theory for Educational Research.

ABSTRACT This article results from a collaborative investigation into Antipodean theory in education by members of the Editors’ Collective (www.editorscollective.org.nz). The Prologue contains a brief personal account of the South Project (www.southernperspectives.net), as an example of the contemporary projects and activities falling under the banner of ‘Antipodean’ ways of working and thinking. The Introduction briefly reviews the history of (mainly Western) ideas about the Antipodes, from classical Greek philosophy through to the contemporary globalised era. This is followed by a synopsis of the motivations, purposes and benefits of Antipodean theory, with more detailed examinations of equality, indigeneity, replication and creation as some of its central elements. We consider the role of Antipodean thinking as a located critical theory for education, and a way to defend our aspirations for equality and social justice against the incursions of neoliberalism, today and in the future.

Academic Publishing, Philosophy of Education and the Future

This Special Issue has presented a series of conversational interviews with editors of leading journals in the field of philosophy of education. This concluding article synthesises the interviews and reflects on what this project offers to early career researchers including the interviewer-authors in this issue. The contributing writers are interested in their own prospects, as well as those of the field of philosophy of education, and indeed education, and society more generally, in the context of the turbulent changes currently remodelling academic lives and institutions. This has been an inspiring project to work on, producing these six interviews, on which this conclusion and special issue is based:

Publishing and Intergenerational Learning for the Future of Philosophy in Education: An interview with Paul Smeyers

Amongst a remarkable publishing career, Paul Smeyers, editor of the journal Ethics and Education, has written extensively on the situation afflicting philosophy of education. A recently published editor’s invited symposium in Studies in Philosophy and Education (Smeyers, De Ruyter, Waghid, & Strand, 2014) put forward and challenged arguments for greater fairness of comparison for success of philosophers of education in relation to other forms of educational research and academic research in general. Here, Smeyers speaks lucidly about his editorial role at Ethics and Education and its ethical obligations as mediator between authors, the journal’s readership, reviewers, his local community, and future generations of philosophers of education across the world. In doing so, he shares advice for early career philosophers of education about the integrity of the field and how to survive the pervasive instrumentalist rationale that has overtaken educational research. This interview took place online between Paul in Leuven, Belgium, and me in Newcastle, Australia, in June 2014.