Editorial

It has been several months since I took on the role of Editor-in-Chief. In that time, I have learned a lot, enough to be able to write with more clarity and precision what I hope to contribute going forward.

First an introduction to who I am and why I wanted to take this on. I am both a social worker and a lawyer; I first earned a BSW and MSW, and then went on to law school. I spent several years as a public interest lawyer, including as a legal aid attorney and then as an Assistant Attorney General for New York State. As a social work scholar, my primary research interests are in poverty and socio-legal studies, where I use qualitative methods to examine the fairness (or unfairness) of legal institutions that serve marginalized groups.

It was my love for teaching that drew me back to social work when I taught a social work class as an adjunct. I loved teaching so much that I left the legal profession and went back to school for a Ph.D. so that I could teach full-time. Many years later I am always excited to teach as the semester begins, and one of my favorite teaching tasks is creating a new syllabus.

I took on the role of Editor-in-Chief because of the subject-matter of the journal – teaching – and because I wanted to be on the other side of the editorial process- making decisions (rather than waiting for them), while also shaping journal content. The reversal of roles has been eye opening. There are more administrative pressures than I expected, but it has also been inspiring to read so many different manuscripts from social work educators who are clearly enthusiastic about teaching. I am also impressed by our reviewers’ thoughtfulness and thoroughness.

But I have also discovered how difficult it is to get reviewers, even though all of us would not be published without our colleagues taking the time to review each other’s work. (The lag time between submissions and publication is mostly because of this). Consequently, I have now sworn to myself that I will never reject a review request in my areas of expertise. I hope that those of you reading this will consider this also.

As for my vision for the journal going forward, I am planning to introduce several new features. First, I would like to add more student voices to the journal; they are often the best judge of what works in the classroom. Thus, I will be adding a section called “Notes” and inviting students to submit manuscripts about their classroom experiences and social work education in general. Second, I will be adding several Columns, which will be shorter submissions (7-8 pages) that encourage authors to offer critiques or new insights. One such section, entitled “Comment” will aim to stimulate a critical dialogue about all aspects of teaching, including what we teach and how we teach it. Another column, entitled “Case Report” will invite short manuscripts that describe a specific innovative teaching strategy, technology, or course design.

I would also welcome new Board members. Please write to me at [email protected] if you are interested.

I would like to end by thanking the long-time previous Editor-in-Chief Paul Kurzman for giving me this opportunity and leaving the Journal in such good shape. My thanks also to our long-time Managing Editor, Ruth Flaherty, for all she does, and staying on to help me.