We are honoured to be the new Deafness and Education International joint editors. We are most grateful to Dr Margaret Brown and Dr Linda Watson for inducting us into the role for the past six months. On behalf of our international readership, we would like to sincerely thank Margaret and Linda for their excellent stewardship of Deafness and Education International over the past 13 years. Since 2005, they have guided the Journal through many challenges and as a result, left DEI in a healthier and more influential position.
Here we briefly introduce ourselves. Rachel worked as a teacher of deaf children in secondary and Further Education in Greater Manchester for 25 years before moving to the University of Edinburgh where she teaches on and organizes the postgraduate diploma in deaf education. Rachel’s research includes the achievements of deaf pupils in the school system, the development of technical terms in British Sign Language, and most recently investigating the way deaf and hearing young people read online. Rachel has been on the Editorial Board of the journal since 2003 and has always enjoyed reviewing.
Jill is a teacher of the deaf, auditory-verbal therapist, scholar, academic, and advisor whose priority is to ensure that evidence underpins strategic direction, government policy, programme implementation, and pedagogical practice. She has held education-related academic and senior leadership positions in Australia and the USA and has received many awards for her services to children with disabilities and their families. Her current research foci include diversity in education, inclusive education workforce capability, and social capital as a measure of education outcome.
Although we have different backgrounds, we work very well together, and between us, we have many useful contacts across the world in deaf education. Our vision for Deafness and Education International is to build on its international strengths and to develop an Editorial Board that is truly global. To accomplish this, we will incorporate an Executive Editor Board and an Associate Editor Board into the journal Governance. More information regarding these Boards will be forthcoming.
As joint Editors, we will work closely with the two professional associations associated with the Journal, BATOD and NAATD. We want to ensure that Deafness and Education International remains relevant to teachers of children and young people who are deaf or hard of hearing and that, where possible, articles are translational insofar as they link theory and research to policy and practice.
Two DEI special issues are underway: Issues 3 and 4 of 2018 will focus on decision-making in the education and development of infants, children and young people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Issue 2 of 2019 will be developed by guest editor, Professor Sangeeta Bagga-Gupta from the School of Education, Jönköping University, Sweden. The topic of this special edition will be languaging across time and space, looking at how deaf children and adults use their languages often in combination. Further details will be announced about this issue soon.
Additional changes are underway. Deafness and Education International now has its own Twitter account (@DeafEducInt) so that Senior Editors can share recently published articles, relevant events, and relevant news. You will be pleased to know that every Deafness and Education International author now receives 50 free electronic downloads of their article; Twitter is an excellent way to distribute these copies to interested readers who are not yet subscribers.
We will be attending the ANZCED 2018 conference in Adelaide this July. Please visit the DEI stall to talk to us about your ideas for the journal. You can further support the journal by encouraging your university to subscribe and promote membership of BATOD and NAATD.