OISE launches new, one-of-a-kind Master of Teaching Research Journal
One-of-a-kind publication breaks traditional research boundaries, will share research of students and instructors with the world
By Lindsey Craig
July 5, 2018
OISE's new Master of Teaching Research Journal launched June 21 at the OISE Library. At the event, co-editor and professor Angela Vemic (third from the left), thanked those who have been part of creating the unique publication.
Faculty involved with creating the journal are pictured above: Jim Hewitt, Clare Brett, Angela Vemic, Mary Reid, Kathy Broad and Steven Reid (photo by Marianne Lau).
The Master of Teaching (MT) program is proud to announce its latest innovation, the Master of Teaching Research Journal (MTRJ).
Consistent with the University of Toronto’s role as Ontario’s leading research-intensive university, the Master of Teaching program offers initial teacher education certification at the master’s level, with a distinctive focus on educational research. The MTRJ is a result of this innovative emphasis. Officially launched in June 2018, the mandate of the MTRJ is to share the research of MT students and instructors with the world.
“We are so excited to have launched this innovative journal that will benefit not only members of the MT program community as a vehicle for knowledge-sharing and dialogue, but also benefit the education field more broadly,” said OISE Assistant Professor Angela Vemic, co-editor of the publication.
With other titles including Research Coordinator of OISE’s Master of Teaching Program and Director of the Eureka! Research Institute at University of Toronto Schools (UTS), Prof. Vemic brings a unique perspective to the project. It’s with this unique lens that she sees the exciting opportunities the journal will create.
“It will welcome new and diverse voices – including those from students, faculty, alumni and school and program partners– and vantage points on relevant education topics and issues,” she said.
OISE News recently spoke with Prof. Vemic about the publication. Read below to learn more about how the MTRJ is creating new opportunities for members of the teaching community to come together, share knowledge and learn from each other.
What is this journal?
Vemic: The Master of Teaching Research Journal (MTRJ) is a peer-reviewed open access journal created by the Master of Teaching program community in OISE’s Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning.
Why is it needed?
Vemic: There is a need for journals like the MTRJ because too often only university professors are thought of as researchers, or as experts in the realm of education, and very few journals invite contributions from a broader range of education stakeholders, including teachers and teacher candidates.
Dichotomies such as teacher/researcher and theory/practice are very familiar in the education sphere. These can be harmful though to the extent that they limit what it means to be a teacher and/or a scholar. They can also create divides that can limit the quality and scope of educational knowledge production and the potential for relevant collaborative inquiry.
In the MT program we engage these dichotomies as opportunities for complicating limited notions of who is a teacher and who is a researcher, and for challenging notions of who is a knower in the realm of education. We believe there is a need to bring about intentional and institutional boundary-spanning responses aimed at supporting the meaningful and sustainable integration of teaching and research, theory and practice.
There is a need for spaces that invite the sharing of educational research knowledge from a diverse range of individuals and communities involved in education. The response that we offer, as a program and an institution, is the Master of Teaching Research Journal.
How is this journal unique?
Vemic: The MTRJ is unique in several ways:
It is a journal that is housed in and run by a graduate teacher education program. While journals are sometimes housed in universities, it is far less common for them to be associated with teacher education programs. While there are journals that have a thematic focus on publishing research on teacher education, this is not the same as a teacher education program creating and managing its own journal.
It is also a journal that invites a broad range of types of submissions, including non-traditional representations of knowledge, from a broad range of individuals and collaborators working within the field of education. This scope is much more expansive than traditional educational research journals that typically publish empirical research articles, theoretical pieces, and review articles written by educational research scholars located within universities.
The MTRJ will publish these types of articles, but also invites submissions in the form of practitioner research studies, arts-based contributions, and digital media works. It invites contributions from MT community members working in a number of different kinds of positions, including as teachers, teacher candidates, teacher educators, school board staff, principals, Ministry of Education staff, and MT alumni working in a diverse range of positions in the education sector.
In other words, the MTRJ intentionally targets authorship and readership from individuals and collaborators working across a range of positions/locations in the education field. This is not at all common. By inviting submissions from such a range of education stakeholders and inviting a range of different ways of representing knowledge, the MTRJ challenges traditional notions of who is a knower in education and what counts as knowledge.
What is the goal/objective of this journal/what will it accomplish?
Vemic: In the Master of Teaching program at OISE, teaching excellence and scholarly research are the mutually reinforcing pillars of our program. We teach our students that their task as teacher-researchers is to seek and question knowledge, to reflect on who they are as knowers and what that means for what and how they teach and research, to converse and collaborate, to contribute to knowledge production, and to apply and share what they learn. We’ve created the Master of Teaching Research Journal with the intention for it to act as a vehicle for sharing and showcasing the research knowledge that is produced by our students, faculty, alumni, and school and program partners. We also created it with the intention that it act as a hub for bringing these diverse community members together, in conversation, through their knowledge-sharing work.
Who will read this journal? Where can they access it? How will it help them?
Vemic: The journal can be accessed at mtrj.library.utoronto.ca. It will be read by OISE students, faculty, school and program partners, and education stakeholders more broadly. (Those unaffiliated with the MT program can access the journal but may not contribute.)
We invite submissions from MT program community members, including our teacher-candidates, faculty, and school and program partners. This includes, for example, associate teachers who support our students on practicum placements, school administrators, and school board and Ministry of Education staff involved in partnership work with members of our faculty and/or collaborative work with our program.
It is a journal that we hope will be read and accessed by a broad range of education stakeholders, including all of the above but extended to those outside of the parameters of our MT program community, including educators, educational research scholars, school administrators, policy developers, and teacher educators.
What is the submission process?
Vemic: For those interested in submitting to the journal, please visit mtrj.library.utoronto.ca. With the exception of special issues (such as our inaugural issue), we will be accepting, reviewing, and publishing submissions on a continuing basis. We hope you will consider publishing with us!
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