Nicola Yelland, School of Education, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia |
This first issue of Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood for 2009 marks a stage in the journal's evolution past the first decade of its existence. It represents an auspicious start to the new year as we approach the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century. When we first had the idea for a journal that would support and reflect alternative visions for early childhood education, we did not find a lot of encouragement until we corresponded with Roger Osborn-King of Triangle Journals (now Symposium Journals). Not only was he our first sign of interest, he suggested an idea which was then, in 1998, almost beyond comprehension! An online journal! At that point in time, in the 'publish or perish' mentality of academe, online journals were derided as not being rigorous and somehow inferior to their article-based counterparts. Yet, the processes inherent to publishing the journal were exactly the same. The only difference was that Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood came in bytes not bits. We believed in what we were doing and agreed that this was an initiative, albeit ahead of its time, that was vitally necessary for encouraging alternative and new paradigms in early childhood. Last year we moved to four issues a year and this has also been a good move. |
