Advice to Authors

If you are an author submitting a paper for publication in EJOLTs, then you are a professional practitioner who is engaging in Living Educational Theory Research. 

If you are new to Living Educational Theory Research Dr Joy Mounter's slides provide an excellent quick overview of the origins and genesis of LETR. Later on the same webpage she gives a very good summary of Jack Whitehead's seminal 1989 paper. Joy has also created slides to introduce you to preparing your paper to submit to EJOLTs. For more visit and explore Joy's website.

Developing a scholarly account of your enquiry for public scrutiny is a crucial component of Living Educational Theory Research. By creating a journal paper that is published you fulfill one of your responsibilities as a professional practitioner, which is to contribute to the growth of global knowledge. You are making a contribution to a worldwide community of values-driven practitioners, as you disseminate the findings and insights developed through your enquiry. 

The most difficult parts of writing any paper can be creating the title, abstract and introduction, which includes a structure (framing) for the contents, and the conclusion.  This is even more the case if you are engaged in Living Educational Theory Research, as it an iterative, relationally dynamic and multidimensional process. Unlike other forms of research you do not 'write up' your research. When working on an account of Living Educational Theory Research you should constantly bear in mind that creating an account of your research to communicate to others your learning and the knowledge you have generated  is an integrative, lving aspect of the process. You need to be alert to the evolution of the research question the paper offers an answer to, which can be emotionally, as well as intellectually, challenging.

You should also keep your readers in mind the following as you create an account of your Living Educational Theory Research: the title is the first thing to attract the attention of a reader and the abstract is often all that is read of a paper, and often influences a potential reader's deciding whether to access the whole paper. Also be aware that while you may begin by creating the title, abstract, introduction, research question etc. be aware that these will change as your paper goes through many iterations.  

There is much advice on the internet about how to write a 'good' title and abstract. You might find a quick search on the web could be very helpful for improving how you write your title and abstract ,  what helps to make your paper easily found through web-searches etc.

• 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.

We suggest making a start on drafting your Abstract by creating concise answers to these questions:

• What is the purpose your paper is intended to serve? You might start with a clear sentence stating whether your aim is to generate your own living-educational-theory or make a theoretical contribution to the field.
• What is the context of your practice (the organisation that that is the context of your current practice if you intend your paper to present research that uses Living Educational Theory Research principles and practice to generate your own living-educational-theory) or the theoretical context (if you intend your paper to make a contribution to the field of Living Educational Theory) Please note it is not common practice to include citations in an Abstract.
• What is your methodological stance? This should include explicit mention of Living Educational Theory Research as your approach or focus.
• What are your main findings (if type 1 paper) or argument (if type 2 paper)? Summary of your living-educational-theory (if type 1 paper) or theoretical advancement (if type 2 paper)
• What contribution does your paper make to enhancing practice or knowledge in the Living Educational Theory community?

• your professional practice and background
• the local, national and international social, historical and political context within which you practice, 
• your purpose of engaging in Living Educational Theory Research and making this account public, and
• the structure of the paper. ( a suggested structure is given below).

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.

It should paraphrase the key points you want your reader to understand and not 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 final paragraph summarising: 
  • what has been learned by whom (including – but not exclusively – you) in the course of the research; 
  • how you might develop your research in the future and 
  • suggestions for readers about how they might find your research, learning and the knowledge you have generated of use to them to improve what they are doing to realise their values-driven responsibilities as professional practitioners.