The editors of the Review of Education (RoE) intend to publish a number of ‘State-of-Play’ (SoP) special issues during their tenure, which commenced in January 2024. They are therefore seeking proposals from colleagues interested in guest-editing a SoP special issue of the journal, to be published from 2025 onwards.

RoE publishes major international primary studies and substantial evidence syntheses in Education that have strong international implications for research, practice, and policymaking. The publications in RoE are usually 8,000 to 20,000 words.

A SoP special issue can cover any topic related to the broad field of Education, both substantively (e.g., teacher education) and methodologically (e.g., evidence synthesis methodologies in educational research). While we do not have any prioritised topics or themes in this call, we particularly welcome proposals that are international in scope and involve contexts from both the Global North and South – with a view that the UK education system will learn from such international knowledge. Moreover, we encourage each SoP special issue to include a combination of primary studies and evidence syntheses that aim to encapsulate diverse perspectives, especially those under-represented in the education literature (e.g., practitioners). We, therefore, strongly support submissions to include non-academics as one of the editors or contributors in the special issue.  

We are seeking expressions of interest, of up to 1,500 words, outlining:

• the topic/theme for the special issue
• a rationale explaining why that topic/theme is important and timely
• why RoE would be an appropriate journal for the special issue
• an indication of possible contributors and contributions (e.g., shortened abstracts; or an indication that it will be an open call and your strategies for the call. We suggest five to 10 papers)
• a timeline that would work for the guest editors
• a short biography for each guest editor.

We recommend at least two guest editors. Please consider the diversity of the guest editorial team and/or including early career researchers for their capacity building.

All contributions to special issues will go through the journal’s standard peer-review process, which means that acceptance of individual contributions is not guaranteed. The editors will work with the guest editors through the review process.

Proposals should be submitted to publications@bera.ac.uk by 30 June 2024.

Decisions will be made by the editors no later than August 2024, after consultation with the editorial board.

Please feel free to contact the editors, via publications@bera.ac.uk, if you have any further questions. This call for proposals is also available on the BERA website.