Advice to Authors
If you are an author submitting a paper for publication in EJOLTs, then you are a professional practitioner who has engaged in Living Educational Theory Research. Developing an artefact, such as a scholarly paper, to disseminate the findings and insights you have developed as you have done so, to a worldwide community of values-driven practitioners is a crucial component of Living Educational Theory Research. By creating a journal paper that is published you realise (make real) one of your responsibilities as a professional practitioner, which is to contribute to the growth of global knowledge. As you do so you also enhance your educational influence in your own learning to improve your values-laden praxis, in the learning of those who are members of the communities of practice you belong to, and in the learning of those who act as your reviewers and critical friends.
While you are writing your paper, you will find it helpful to consult the glossary of terms commonly used within Living Educational Theory Research.
To be accepted for publication, your paper must incorporate the distinctive core principles that mark Living Educational Theory Research as a unique research paradigm and methodology. These core principles are based on notions of the responsibilities of professional practitioners as members of Humanity. These responsibilities require you to hold yourself to account to:
- describe and explain your educational influence in the learning of others, who comprise the social formation that is the context of the practice
- describe and explain your educational influence in the learning of social formations that form the context of the practice
- describe and explain your educational influence in your own learning to improve your educational practice
- coherently represent your living-educational-theory
- overtly identify values that influence the research, as they evolve and emerge in the course of your enquiry
- use the descriptions and explanations of values in action as the explanatory principles that form the basis and structure of your account
- clarify values as they emerge in the research and use them as practical standards of judgement to support claims, also publicly validated, to have improved educational practice
- use values as epistemological standards of judgment, also publicly validated, to evaluate the validity of knowledge-claims
- help readers to develop their understanding of their own educational practice, to improve it and to create a valid account of their living-educational-theory to contribute to the growth of global knowledge.
The most difficult parts of writing a paper can be writing the title, abstract and introduction – which includes a structure (framing) for the contents – and the conclusion. You should constantly bear in mind that writing a Living Educational Theory Research paper is an iterative process, so you need to be alert to the evolution of the research question the paper offers an answer to. That can be emotionally as well as intellectually challenging.
You should also keep your readers in mind the following when writing your paper. People look at the title of a paper and its abstract to decide whether to read through the whole paper. There is much advice on the internet about how to write a 'good' title and abstract. You should research these resources to learn how to write a title and abstract that attracts the attention of a reader, makes them want to read your paper and makes your paper easily found through web-searches.
General points
Abstract – should enable your reader:
- to understand the gist/essence of your paper quickly so that they can decide whether to download and read the full paper
- to be prepared for the specific types of information, analyses, arguments and key points that are contained in the main body of the paper.
Introduction – should include some details of:
- the context,
- purpose, and
- structure of the paper.
It is helpful for the end of the introduction to give a summary of the structure of the paper in the form of a list of section headings.
Conclusion – should be briefer than the preceding discussion section.
It should paraphrase and not to just 'copy and paste' the preceding main text.
The conclusion should include:
- A reminder of what areas are addressed in the paper – (related to the title, abstract and introduction)
- A summary of overall arguments and findings – (related to abstract and introduction)
- The significance and implications of the knowledge created for improving learning (with values of human flourishing) for:
– the social formation/s which forms the context of practice and research,
– those who comprise that social formation
– your learning to realise your responsibilities as a professional practitioner and member of the social formation within which you practice, and as a global citizen.
- A last paragraph summarising (i) what has been learned by whom (including – but not exclusively – you) in the course of the research; (ii) how you might develop your research in the future and (iii) suggestions for readers about how they might incorporate your research and findings into their own living-educational-theory.
