"The journal is intended to be a forum for critical discussion on practices in higher education. Above all, we want to focus on the challenges and tensions that we see in the university context today and raise issues around its research and teaching pursuits as well as the conditions of different groups within academia,” says Petra Angervall, Editor-in-Chief and Professor of Education at the University of Borås.

The first issue will include research on, among other things, the work of university research administrators as well as teacher educators' views of their own profession in relation to digitalisation.

Kathleen Mahon and Marcus Agnafors at the University of Borås and David Hoffman and Melina Aarnikoivu of the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, together with Petra Angervall, took initiative to and lead the work

A world-class editorial board

The editorial board consists of several well-renowned and internationally recognised researchers, including Gina Wisker of the University of Brighton and Eva Bendix Petersen of Roskilde University. Also included in the editorial board are Ronald Barnett of University College London and Stephen Kemmis of Charles Sturt University, Australia, both of whom have excelled in the subject for decades.

"When we invited in editors, we wanted to create a diversity in which several different theoretical perspectives are represented. We also encourage our editors to identify new, exciting approaches and to challenge the themes addressed in the journal,” says Petra Angervall.

New contact networks

Petra Angervall sees the new journal as an opportunity for the University of Borås to make contacts and to highlight the university's research quality in an international arena.

"Through the work with the journal, we have already linked ourselves more closely with several contacts with internationally renowned researchers and our contact network is constantly growing. Now we have easy access to the most recent research in our field while this contact network can benefit researchers at the university.”

The journal caters not only to researchers but also to those involved with, for example, education and administration in higher education.

"Our ambition has been to broaden access to important ideas and research and to be open to a diversity of different perspectives. Therefore, we have chosen to create an open source journal, which means that it is freely available to everyone via the internet.”

Unique among the Nordic countries

The Journal of Praxis in Higher Education is not only the first educational journal at the University of Borås. It is also unique among the Nordic countries.

"It is the only international journal in this part of Europe that puts an international focus on this field. Overall, there are not very many education journals in Sweden. Therefore, we are particularly proud that the University of Borås can now present our own journal in the field,” says Petra Angervall.

The editors aim to publish two new issues in 2020 and then three issues a year.

"For the first issue, we received more article contributions than we expected. We have also already received a contribution to the next issue so we believe that there is a great interest in participating in the journal.”

Read more

To the Journal of Praxis in Higher Education (external link) 

Text and Photo: Linda Rydh
Translation: Eva Medin