Editorial: The Academic Study of Educational Alternatives

Abstract

First paragraph: Having just read some reflections on the first issue of Other Education (http://www.libed.org.uk/jan13/other-education.html), we consider it is a fitting place to springboard into this editorial. The review, speaking from a place of practical educational matters, voices concerns about the philosophical nature of some of the contributions in the inaugural issue of Other Education. As readers of this journal will see from the articles in this issue -- our first to include peer reviewed submissions -- Other Education is extremely concerned with practical educational matters. As stated and shown, with regard to the inaugural issue of invited position papers from the OE editorial board, our remit is broad. What we have done so far is to highlight perhaps that educational alternatives are a wide territory, requiring a theoretical basis and philosophical and theoretical debates, positions and challenges included in its conversations, in order to flourish. The mostly academic based editorial board that we work with are always theoreticians, even if not explicitly so, because academic work without some kind or some content of theory is missing a vital component of its presentation. As the stated aim of Other Education is "to promote and represent the academic study of educational alternatives" rather than to represent those practices and processes themselves (see http://www.othereducation.stir.ac.uk/index.php/OE/about/editorialPolicies#focusAndScope) our first priority is towards the publication of academic work. Such work inevitably needs to include a theoretical dimension-albeit that this does not necessarily mean that such a dimension has to be philosophical.