Scholarly and Research Communication
Volume 9 / Issue 1 / 2018

Historical Studies in Education / Revue d’histoire de l’éducation: A Journal’s Journey From Past to Present

Penney Clark, K.M. Gemmell, & Mona Gleason
University of British Columbia

Penney Clark is Professor in the Department of Curriculum & Pedagogy at the University of British Columbia. Email: penney.clark@ubc.ca

Katie Gemmell is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Curriculum & Pedagogy at the University of British Columbia. Email: k.gemmell@alumni.ubc.ca

Mona Gleason is Professor in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia. Email: mona.gleason@ubc.ca 

Fall/automne 2017. Prudence Heward (Montréal 1896 – Los Angeles 1947). At the Theatre. 1928. Oil on canvas. The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, purchase, Horsley and Annie Townsend Bequest. Photo MMFA, Brian Merrett.

History and mandate of Historical Studies in Education /Revue d’histoire de l’éducation 

Historical Studies in Education / Revue d’histoire de l’éducation(HSE / RHÉ) is the official peer-reviewed journal of the Canadian History of Education Association / Association canadienne d’histoire de l’éducation (CHEA / ACHÉ). Established in 1988 with the first issue published in spring 1989, the journal is now in its 29th year of publication. In 2007, the journal began publishing online, using the Open Journal Systems (OJS) management system, a freely available open source software, while continuing to offer annual subscriptions to those who wish to have a print version. In 2011 the journal became open access. The journal has benefitted immensely from funding provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), as well as funding from the various universities where it has resided. It is a member of the Canadian Association of Learned Journals (CALJ).

The first home of the HSE / RHÉwas at the University of Western Ontario, where it operated for seven years under the leadership of Winnifred (Wyn) Millar, Ruby Heap, Robert Gidney, and Rebecca Coulter. Although Canadian publishing had survived the 1982–1986 recession, it was a bold move to establish an academic journal in 1989, when Canadian scholarly publishing was still recovering from this crisis (Bruneau, 1996a). The strength of the collegial CHEA / ACHÉ community fostered the growth of the journal under committed editors. In an effort to ensure that no member of this small academic community was prevented from being published, the editors chose a unique policy: board members could be potential contributors, should they choose to submit their work to the journal. This policy was implemented in the inaugural issue, where all six articles and a review essay were revised versions of papers from the 1988 CHEA / ACHÉ conference, on the conference theme, “Aspects of Class and Gender in Education,” and several were written by board members. In subsequent issues, the editors would continue to include selected papers from the association’s conference presentations, as well as a bibliography on Canadian educational history and related fields (later to become a strictly educational history bibliography), which had previously been published in the CHEA Bulletin d’ACHÉ In addition to drawing upon the work of members of the CHEA / ACHÉ, the editors established contact with related journals in the field, including History of Education Quarterly (U.S.), Histoire de l’éducation (France), Paedagogica Historica (Belgium), History of Education (U.K.), and History of Education Review (Australia and New Zealand). HSE / RHÉ’s connection with the latter journal resulted in a joint special issue publication in 1994. In 1994–1995, the CHEA / ACHÉ executive committee commissioned an external evaluation by Professor E. McClellan.¹This extremely positive evaluation proposed small changes that the next editors would take up (Bruneau, 1996a).

In 1996 HSE / RHÉmoved to the University of British Columbia, with William Bruneau and Thérèse Hamel (Université Laval) as co-editors. The new editors found themselves taking the reins of a well-established journal in which researchers and writers from across Canada and around the world were showing interest. The previous editors had given the journal’s form and content a clear and attractive character, and had ensured high standards of writing and argumentation. The new editors set about expanding the journal’s readership by campaigning to increase individual and institutional subscriptions and working to make the journal available on the internet. The spring 1996 issue saw the introduction of a “Documents” section, which included historically significant primary source documents in the history of education, as well as a “Research Notes and Correspondence” section (later shortened to “Research Notes”) in the style of seventeenth and eighteenth-century European “scientific” journals (Bruneau, 1996b). This section was intended to provide a space for forms of historical argument and discussion that were outside the purviewof a typical academic article. The editors envisioned this as including discussion about underutilized archives, methodological debates, and historiographical arguments, space for constructive questioning about previously published HSE / RHÉ articles, or as a space to highlight new areas of historical research. In addition, the editors encouraged the submission of review essays, which were popular among readers, and sought to increase the number of special issues of the journal.

In the fall of 2001 HSE / RHÉreturned to the University of Western Ontario, with Wyn Millar, Robert Gidney, and Rebecca Coulter resuming co-editorship duties, with the additions of Andrée Dufour and Stéphane Lévesque. This editorial team continued publishing articles, book reviews, review essays, and research notes, and in 2004–2005 introduced two new sections: “Growing Up In …,” historical accounts written in the first person, and “A Life in Education,” which were biographical pieces on prominent figures in the history of education.

In the spring of 2007, HSE / RHÉmoved to Queen’s University under the co-editorship of Paul Axelrod, Rosa Bruno Jofré, Andrée Dufour, and Elizabeth Smyth. In the same year, the goal from ten years earlier of making the journal available online was realized. Historical Studies in Education / Revue d’histoire de l’éducation moved online to the Open Journal Systems (OJS) management platform, allowing readers with annual subscriptions to access it in print or online. Continuing with co-editors Paul Axelrod, Rosa Bruno Jofré, and Elizabeth Smyth, and with Jocelyne Murray assuming French-language editor responsibilities from Andrée Dufour, the journal moved to York University in the spring of 2010. Under this editorial team, HSE / RHÉbegan operating as a subscription fee-free, open access journal with a print-on-demand option in February, 2011. The journal went in this direction for a number of reasons: to increase accessibility around the world; to minimize the costs of production and distribution; and to dispense with onerous administrative tasks associated with managing subscriptions. The decision to move to open access has proven to be positive. Not only has readership increased, it has allowed the journal to be accessible to scholars across the globe. In addition to the provision of open access, under this editorial team, and in particular through the oversight of Jocelyne Murray and the managing editor, Daniel Ross, the journal published a series of articles across three issues, from spring 2013 to spring 2014, to foster scholarly debate in a section titled: “Débat sur l’enseignement de l’histoire au Québec / Debate on the Teaching of History in Quebec.”

As of 2016, the journal has resided at the University of British Columbia under the co-editorship of Penney Clark and Mona Gleason, with Katie Gemmell as managing editor, and Catherine Duquette from the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi assuming French-language associate editor responsibilities from Jocelyne Murray in the summer of 2017. In the fall 2017 issue, a new section was introduced titled, “History of Education in the Classroom.” Like other new sections introduced previously, this section will not be a consistent feature of the journal. Rather, it will appear whenever a suitable article is published. This innovation was prompted by the submission of an article called “Why the Flapper Still Matters: Feminist Pedagogy, the Modern Girl, and the Women Artists of the Beaver Hall Group” by Christina Ann Burr, an associate professor in the department of history at the University of Windsor. Dr. Burr takes the reader through the development and teaching of an undergraduate history course on this topic. More broadly, this addition was in response to the CHEA / ACHÉ’s recent efforts to be more inclusive of scholars in the area of history education (history teaching and learning), as well as historians of education. We hope to reinstate an earlier feature of the journal, “Growing Up In …” This charming section, which appeared from 2004 to 2008, involved a scholar reminiscing about school experiences during a particular decade. Given how valuable memories of schooling, particularly from the perspective of former students, are to historians of education, this work could be immensely useful for researchers going forward. 

Journal scope and audience

Published twice yearly with a spring and fall issue, HSE / RHÉtypically includes five or six original articles, one of which is typically a French language article, as well as 10 to 15 book reviews. While the majority of the articles have focused on Canadian themes, the journal welcomes and has published articles on the history of education in other countries. The journal’s ability to attract contributors from outside of Canada helps extend its intellectual reach, and we continue to encourage authors from around the world to submit articles. The journal’s central objective is to disseminate new research and writing in educational history, broadly construed, as widely as possible. The journal seeks to provide a forum for scholarly research in both French and English and for Canadian and international scholars. Historical Studies in Education / Revue d’histoire de l’éducationpublishes historical articles on every aspect of education, from pre-school to university education, on informal as well as formal education, and on methodological and historiographical issues.

In addition to traditional historical work on schools and universities, teachers, students, and administrators, the journal explores such subjects as the history of education policy-making in Canada and elsewhere; the workings and impact of language, ethnicity, religion, social class, race, and gender; and the culture of childhood and youth. The content of the journal, therefore, is wide ranging. A glance over the past 15 years reveals articles on children’s response to war; technology education; rural teachers; education in the North; textbook publication, provision, and content; progressive and neo-progressive reforms; Francophone education outside of Québec; adult education; teacher education; sexual orientation and various aspects of education; literacy; and private educational institutions, religion, and education. However, women and education is the theme that has had the greatest traction over the period, with at least 14 articles published on the topic since 2004. Articles reflecting the methods and approaches of other disciplines are also published. In brief, the field and this journal have come to include social and cultural history as well as traditional forms of intellectual and institutional history.

The journal audience is primarily academic and draws those with a special interest in the history of schooling, childhood, postsecondary education, and related subjects. It is used widely in undergraduate and graduate courses that explore these themes and provides rich material for students in teacher education courses studying the origins and development of schooling in Canada and elsewhere. The journal remains the most significant and established outlet for the publication of original articles (English and French) in Canadian educational history – it is the only professional academic Canadian journal devoted exclusively to this subject. By including on its advisory board distinguished academics from abroad, and by publishing high-quality articles on non-Canadian themes, the journal seeks to increase its exposure internationally, thereby deepening its contribution to the historical literature. The journal, which appears twice annually, is now fully online and available in on-demand print format. Each annual volume consists of 300–350 pages of text. As the chart in Figure 1 demonstrates, levels of article views show consistent interest in content.

Authors

Journal content is written by scholars in universities and elsewhere, Canadians and non-Canadians, graduate students to teachers, researchers, and archivists, and curators of educational museums, to others who are interested in the field of history education. Since the journal’s inception, its authors have represented a full range of constituencies in terms of gender, race/ethnicity, age, areas of expertise, and seniority within the field of history of education. As Figure 2 shows, journal authors work in a range of roles, including as faculty members in departments of history and faculties of education, as librarians in university archives and special collections, as graduate students, and as independent scholars. HSE / RHÉauthors represent every region of Canada and a number of countries around the world.

Guest-edited issues

In the past decade there have been a number of theme-based, guest-edited issues, or partial issues, including 

1. new research directions in literacy (Bruce Curtis, guest editor, fall 2007),
2. histories of rural education (Ruth Sandwell, guest editor, spring 2012),
3. a debate on history education in Québec (Jocelyne Murray, guest editor, fall 2013),
4. a selection of papers from the 2012 CHEA / ACHÉ conference (Penney Clark and Mona Gleason, guest editors, fall 2013),
5. education in the Canadian North (Heather E. McGregor and W.P.J. Millar, guest editors, spring 2015), and
6. new perspectives on Indigenous education (Alison Norman and Thomas Peace, guest editors, spring 2017). 

The Spring 2017 issue was guest-edited by Dr. Alison Norman, who is a research advisor in the Ontario Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation in Toronto, Ontario, as well as a research associate at the Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario and Dr. Thomas Peace, an assistant professor at Huron University College in London, Ontario. In the wake of the findings of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the five emerging scholars who contributed to this issue presented fresh perspectives on the history of schooling for indigenous children: 

1. Thomas Peace, “Borderlands, Primary Sources, and the Longue Durée: Contextualizing Colonial Schooling at Odanak, Lorette, and Kahnawake, 1600–1850.”
2. Alison Norman, “Teachers Amongst Their Own People”: Kanyen’kehá:ka (Mohawk) Women Teachers in Nineteenth-Century Tyendinaga and Grand River, Ontario.”
3. Sean Carleton, “Settler Anxiety and State Support for Missionary Schooling in Colonial British Columbia, 1849–1871.”
4. Emma Battell Lowman, “Mamook Komtax Chinuk Pipa / Learning to Write Chinook Jargon: Indigenous Peoples and Literacy Strategies in the South Central Interior of British Columbia in the Late Nineteenth Century.”
5. Braden Paora Te Hiwi, “‘Unlike Their Playmates of Civilization, the Indian Children’s Recreation Must Be Cultivated and Developed’: The Administration of Physical Education at Pelican Lake Indian Residential School, 1926–1944.”

As historian Jean Barmanobserved in her introduction to the issue: 

Each of these five articles provides a powerful reminder that the history of Indigenous schooling has been far more wide ranging and eventful than was the residential school evoked as a blanket descriptor. The question worth pondering is why we have paid so little attention to Indigenous schooling from the inside out as opposed to the top down.

The upcoming spring 2018 issue will be guest-edited by Tim Stanley, Lorna McLean, Sharon Cook, Heather E. McGregor, Ruby Heap, Nicholas Ng-A-Fook, Stéphane Lévesque, and Chad Gaffield, members of the Making History Educational Research Unit / Faire de l’histoire : récits et mémoires collectives en éducation at the University of Ottawa. It will be titled “From Centennial to Sesquicentennial in Canada: Transformative Research in the History of Education.” This issue, which was inspired by Canada’s 150th anniversary, enquires how our new understandings of the educational past might shape both the present and the future of education and Canadian society. We have found periodic theme issues to be a valuable way to generate original contributions, to increase the volume of submissions, and to contribute strong focused issues that are particularly beneficial for teaching the history of education. 

The structure of the current editorial team

The current editorial team consists of co-editors professors Penney Clark and Mona Gleason, managing editor, doctoral candidate Katie Gemmell, and English book review editor, assistant professor Jason Ellis, all of whom are located at the journal’s institutional home, the University of British Columbia. French language associate editor Catherine Duquette is a professor at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi and French language book review editor Marie-Hélène Brunet is a professor – Long Term Appointment, at the Université d’Ottawa. Independent scholar Jocelyne Murray completed her duties as French language associate editor and book review editor as of the spring 2017 issue. We are profoundly grateful to Jocelyne Murray for her contributions to the journal.

The editors are approved and/or renewed at the biennial general meeting of the Canadian History of Education Association (CHEA). The co-editors’ roles include overseeing the overall operation of the journal, including its fiscal and technical aspects. At least one associate editor takes responsibility for French-language manuscripts and book reviews. Editors work closely with the managing editor in all aspects of the many editorial functions, including the journal distribution and administrative record-keeping. Tasks include

1. creating and maintaining an advisory board; 
2. initial reviewing of manuscripts; 
3. assigning reviewers; 
4. providing guidelines for contributors; 
5. dealing with matters pertaining to journal policies and practices; 
6. providing guidance for the managing editor;
7. communicating with the CHEA executive; 
8. furthering journal interests by implementing new initiatives, advocating for research and publication, liaising with funding agencies, publicizing, broadening contacts, and attracting manuscripts;
9. applying for grants; and
10. reporting to the journal’s association, the CHEA / ACHÉ.

The advisory board consists of 10 scholars who are leading figures in the field from Canada and around the world (English and French). Current board members are:

1. A.J. Angulo, University of Massachusetts, U.S.
2. Paul Axelrod, York University, Canada
3. Anthony Di Mascio, Bishop’s University, Canada
4. Ian Grosvenor, University of Birmingham, U.K.
5. Thérèse Hamel, Université Laval, Canada
6. Jane Martin, University of Birmingham, U.K.
7. Jocelyne Murray, Québec, Canada
8. Ken Osborne, University of Manitoba, Canada
9. Helen Raptis, University of Victoria, Canada
10. Amy von Heyking, University of Lethbridge, Canada

Advisory board members are chosen to represent the range of the association’s members; the regional, linguistic, and international contexts of the association; the range of scholarly areas in the field; and to show balanced representation (gender, language, national/international, etc.). The board’s mandate is to provide advice to the editors on editorial matters, to recommend referees, and to serve as peer reviewers. This board also ensures that the journal’s international reputation is secure, and provides linkages to help widen the subscription base as well as to raise awareness of the journal within and beyond Canada. 

Editorial policies 

The major journal policies are as follows:

Peer review 

Two to three reviewers are typically used in reviewing submissions to the journal. The criteria by which reviewers are asked to judge submissions include: originality; soundness of argument; interpretation of results; quality of presentation; subject relevance for HSE / RHÉfocus; and contribution(s) to the field. The amount of time normally taken to conduct a review is four weeks. Reviewers are given a date by which their review should be returned to the journal. Principles for recruiting reviewers are focused on their expertise and familiarity in the subject area and the research focus of the submission to be reviewed. Reviewers are expected to exercise impartiality and to avoid any conflict of interest. Our extensive database of reviewers is continuously updated.

Authorial expectations

Articles submitted to HSE / RHÉmust report original work. The submission of a manuscript to the journal implies that it has not been submitted or accepted for publication elsewhere, in whole or in part, in print or digital form, and that the work contained therein is the author’s own. All article submissions must pass a peer review process following blind review protocol. 

Copyright

Immediate open access is provided to HSE / RHÉcontent according to the Budapest Open Access Initiative. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles. All journal content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Authors are not charged article-processing fees for publication. Users may not modify HSE / RHÉpublications, nor use them for commercial purposes without asking prior permission from the publisher and the author. Immediate open access to content is provided on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

1. Authors retain copyright and grant HSE / RHÉthe right of first publication. 
2. Authors who wish to enter into subsequent, separate, commercial or non-commercial, contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal’s published version of their work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), must request permission from the journal. Subsequent publications must include an acknowledgement of its initial publication in HSE / RHÉ.
3. Authors who wish to revise, transform, or build upon their HSE / RHÉpublications must request permission from the journal to publish the revised material. The resulting publication must include an acknowledgement of its initial form and publication in HSE / RHÉ.

In all of our editorial tasks and journal publications, we support the elimination of sexual, racial, and ethnic stereotyping

Archiving

Journal records are deposited at the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections at York University.

Funding

Historical Studies in Education / Revue d’histoire de l’éducation(HSE / RHÉ) responded positively to encouragement from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) to become open access. Apart from a limited number of institutional and individual subscriptions, and some institutional support, the journal has no other source of income beyond the SSHRC grant which, most recently, has been about $9,000 per year. The support from SSHRC has been essential in cultivating and sustaining an independent, bilingual journal devoted to the study of Canadian educational history. Historical Studies in Education / Revue d’histoire de l’éducationinvestigated the possibility of associating with a large publishing consortium, which would charge substantial subscription fees and handle the journal’s administration. The revenue generation expectations were simply too high for the bi-annual journal, which would no longer qualify for a SSHRC grant under such an arrangement. We concluded, correctly, that we could better serve our community of scholars, students, and other interested readers by efficiently using the modest SSHRC grant that has supported the journal for so many years. We would deeply lament, and likely not survive, the loss of the SSHRC grant.

Samples of issues

Figures 3-5 provide examples of HSE / RHÉissues.

Visions for the future 

The enduring goal is to ensure that HSE / RHÉattracts scholarly submissions of the highest quality. With this commitment as our constant touchstone, our vision for the future of the journal has two major foci. One focus is to continue to encourage article submissions on the history of education broadly defined. We believe that one of the greatest strengths of the journal is the broad range of articles devoted to historical research in education. This broad remit means that the journal can and does attract a compelling range of submissions and readership, from those interested in K-12 schooling, to those interested in postsecondary education, adult education, public pedagogies, and so on. A second focus is to develop sections of the journal devoted to specialized interests in the field, including, for example, teaching the history of education, discussions of new historical methods and theoretical perspectives, reviews of archival collections, and brief memoirs. The inclusion of more focused sections would appeal to a broad range of readers, including established academics, students, and those interested in the field more generally.

Cataloguing data

Title of the journal: Historical Studies in Education / Revue d’histoire de l’éducation
Print ISSN: 0843-5057
Online ISSN: 1911-9674
Publishing house or institution: University of British Columbia
Present editors: Dr. Penney Clark and Dr. Mona Gleason
Year of foundation: 1988
Frequency: 2 issues, 1 volume, per year. Used languages: English, French.
In print or electronic: electronic; print copy on-demand.
Access policy: Free open access.
Sections: articles, research notes, History of Education in the Classroom, reviews.

Indexation and databases: America: History and Life; Canadian, American and International Open Access (OA) list-serves; Canadian Historical Review; CBCA Complete; CBCA Education; Contents Pages in Education; Current Abstracts; Education Research Abstracts (ERA); Genamics Journal Seek; Google and Google Scholar; Historical Abstracts; Professional Proquest Central; ProQuest Central; TOC Premier; Scholars Portal; Sociology of Education Abstracts; Clarivate Analytics -Web of Science, Emerging Sources Citation Index; Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), and Information Matrix for the Analysis of Journals (MIAR).

URL: http://historicalstudiesineducation.ca/index.php/edu_hse-rhe/index

Note

1. American historian B. Edward McClellan was active with HSE / RHÉ’s counterpart in the United States, History of Education Quarterly. This evaluation was likely a request or requirement from SSHRC in conjunction with ongoing funding.

References

Barman, Jean. (2017). Introduction: Revisiting the histories of Indigenous schooling and literacies. Un regard renouvelé de l’éducation des Autochtones, Historical Studies in Education / Revue d’histoire de l’éducation,29(1), 3-7.

Bruneau, William. (1996a). Editorial note. Historical Studies in Education / Revue d’histoire de l’éducation, 8(1), vii-viii.

Bruneau, William. (1996b). Editoral: A new department. Historical Studies in Education / Revue d’histoire de l’éducation, 8(2), 211.

CISP Press
Scholarly and Research Communication
Volume 9, Issue 1, Article ID 0101286, 11 pages
Journal URL: www.src-online.ca http://doi.org/10.22230/src.2018v9n1a286

Received September 6, 2017, Accepted October 2, 2017, Published February 1, 2018

Clark, Penney, Gemmell, K.M., & Gleason, Mona. (2018). Historical Studies in Education / Revue d’histoire de l’éducation: A Journal’s Journey From Past to Present. Scholarly and Research Communication, 9(1): 0101286, 11 pp.
© 2018 Penney Clark, K.M. Gemmell, & Mona Gleason. This Open Access article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.