bs_bs_banner

European Journal of Education, Vol. 48, No. 1, 2013

2013Letter from the Joint Editors

Dear Readers, Following 20 years of exceptional service to the European Journal of Education, Jean-Pierre Jallade has decided to step down as joint editor.We would like to thank him for his tireless work on the Journal over the years and for his outstanding contribution to the eld of educational research. The Editorial Board is delighted to announce that Richard Desjardins is replacing him as joint editor and will work with Jean Gordon. Richard is an Associate Professor in the Department of Education at Aarhus University (Denmark) and currently seconded as a Policy Analyst (political economy of skills) to the OECD Education Directorate in Paris. He joined the Editorial Board in 2010. We are pleased to welcome you to volume 48 of the European Journal of Education. At the start of this year, we would like to thank all our editorial board members and editorial correspondents whose contributions to the Journal, proposals of themes and topics enrich our discussions. We would also like to thank our dedicated publishing team at Wiley Blackwell. Volume 48 starts with this issue, guest edited by Yves Punie, on ICT for Learning, Education and Training: taking stock of progress and looking at the future. It analyses progress on the impact of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) for learning in general as well as, more specically, in formal education and looks at major changes for the future of learning. During the last decade, ICTs have been widely introduced in formal education systems in Europe and other parts of the world. Most stakeholders are generally quite positive about their impact for teaching, learning and organisational use, whilst recognising that a real breakthrough in eLearning or ICT-enabled learning and teaching has not (yet) been realised. Empirical evidence on the educational impact of ICT is increasing, both in terms of large scale (e.g. OECD PISA, Eurydice, etc.) and smaller scale studies. This issue provides a critical review of evidence, opening the discussion towards identifying and implementing major changes to education systems to meet the challenges of 21st century learning and society. The second issue, to appear in June 2013, is entitled: Adult learning systems in comparative perspective. It is guest edited by Richard Desjardins and Kjell Rubenson and is situated at the intersection between scholarship and policy, aiming to contribute insights into the study of policy on post-compulsory learning. It will compare the extent to which various forms of adult learning manifest themselves in different contemporary welfare states. It will examine different forms of adult learning, ranging from post-compulsory education, such as upper secondary tracks and tertiary education, to rm-based training, compensatory adult education and learning for civic and leisure-oriented purposes. Pathways to learning and transition systems and participation patterns in higher education and in other organised forms of adult learning are some of the themes on which it will focus.

2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.

European Journal of Education

Issue 3 (September 2013) is on matters related to early school leavers and their links to social disadvantage. It is guest edited by Alistair Ross & Carole Leathwood. Early school leaving (ESL) is a major challenge for European countries. Early school leavers are dened by the European Commission as young people who leave education and training before completing upper secondary level qualications. A rising share of such people in Europe is also unable to nd employment, and a disproportionate number comes from socially and economically disadvantaged groups: from families with low socio-economic status, ethnic minorities or of migrant origin, with disabilities, etc. The issue, which brings together a multi-disciplinary group of experts in the eld, will examine alternative explanations of why ESL occurs, in terms of both individual and group level factors, and in relation to policies and structures at the national and institutional level. It will analyse how educational policies, cultures and practices impact on the young people concerned by ESL. The issue will include country and regional analyses of different parts of Europe with varied economic and educational traditions and examine the economic relationship between ESL and employment. The nal issue in 2013 will focus on literacy. In the high-tech 21st-century society in which we live, literacy has become more essential than ever. A major report on literacy in the EU Act Now! was launched by the European Commission in September 2012. It was written by the members of a High Level Group of Experts on Literacy over a period of 18 months of research, selected hearings and joint deliberations and is based on the fact that: one in ve of our 15-year-olds in the EU still has insufcient reading skills and that more than 73 million adults in the EU currently have low qualications, and many of them do not have sufcient literacy levels to cope with the daily requirements of personal, social, and economic life. Despite the EUs comparatively high standards of education, some young people fall through the literacy net for different complex reasons. The effects of this loophole can be profound and will impact the rest of a young persons life and have implications for his or her family and society as a whole. Literacy is not just a crucial skill for the individual, but is a vital component of economic prosperity and social well-being. This rst issue of EJE on literacy will be guest edited by Roberto Carneiro and Jean Gordon. It will focus on understanding the literacy landscape in Europe, with reference to the theoretical background and concepts moving towards multiple literacies. Secondly, it will examine the evidence base, focusing on reading literacy for children and young people both in schools and non-formal learning. Looking to 2014, the following thematic issues are in preparation: Analysis of the rst results of the OECD programme, PIAAC (Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies), which will be published in the autumn of 2014. A critical review of international education rankings. We welcome submissions of articles on the above themes and are always happy to hear from readers about topics they would like to see as the subject of a Part I thematic dossier. We receive an ever growing number of articles for review and are indebted both to the colleagues who submit them and to the reviewers who play such an important role in ensuring the quality of the Journal. Since January 2013, we have
2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

3 moved to electronic management of our review process using Scholar One. The link for submitting articles can be found at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/ 10.1111/(ISSN)1465-3435 On the webpage of the Journal you can also nd the Notes for Contributors. The Joint Editors are very pleased to help with information or advice before articles are submitted. Notes for colleagues who wish to submit a proposal for a Part I thematic dossier are also on the website under Special Features: Notes for Guest Editors. We very much hope that you will enjoy volume 48 of the European Journal of Education. Joint Editors: Richard Desjardins RIDE@dpu.dk Assistant Editor: Christina Keyes eje@eiesp.fr

Jean Gordon gordon@eiesp.fr

For more information on the Journal, please visit the Wiley-Blackwell website: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1465-3435 The Journal is edited by the European Institute of Education and Social Policy (EIESP) (www.eiesp.org).

2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

4 European Journal of Education In Memoriam

erych Recollections of Lada C Lada Cerych, who played a key role in developing the European Journal of Education, died in his Prague home in August 2012 at the age of 86. Lada, an energetic advocate for Europe, founded the EIESP in 1975 with the support of the European Cultural Foundation (ECF) and was its director until his retirement in 1990. From 1979 until 1992, he played a critical role as Joint Editor of this Journal, developing its main focus of bridging research, policy and practice in an international, and particularly, European perspective.You can nd recollections of Lada on: http://www.eiesp.org/site/pages/view/ 89.html Roberto Carneiro, Chair of the Editorial Board: Lada was a remarkable visionary and a founding father of a new school of public policy in education. His brilliant mind is at the outset of an innovative legacy in contemporary thinking ranging from policy denition to educational evaluation. We shall miss him a lot. I bow before the memory of the illustrious academic and pay tribute to the unrelentless idealist. Gabor Halasz, member of the Editorial Board: He created and led an atelier of young education policy researchers in Prague who provided high level professional support to the [Czech OECD educational policy] review, at that time almost unique in the region. It was a great professional enjoyment to work with him and with the young colleagues he educated (many of them still play important roles in various positions in Prague or abroad). Later, I took part in a large Central-European cooperation project, funded by the Soros Foundation, led by Lada, on the comparative analysis of education policies. This was again a great experience: we had wonderful discussions about the challenges of education policy transformation and transition in the Visegrad Countries. He had a deep understanding of this transformation process and of the painful challenges of transition. A part of this was reected in a thematic volume of the European Journal of Education (Vol. 31, No. 1, 1996) which contained articles born from a Council of Europe conference in Prague, also prepared with his vital contribution. I met him often during the1990s, mostly in Prague, sometimes in Budapest or in Paris, where he often attended OECD meetings on education. It was always a great experience to meet him and to admire his wisdom.

2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.