Editorial.

Fitzgerald, Tanya ; Trimingham-Jack, Christine

History of Education Review is the official journal of the Australia and New Zealand History of Education Society [ANZHES]. At its Annual General Meeting in December 2007, the ANZHES appointed the editorial team for a further term of five years. We are extremely grateful to ANZHES for its confidence in the team and look forward to taking the journal from strength to strength and building on its legacy as one of the leading journals in the field. At this point we would also like to sincerely thank the outgoing Editorial Board and welcome the new Board. For both departing and incoming members, we are most appreciative of your willingness to lend your scholarly reputation to the journal and support its work. No journal can exist without its contributors, manuscript referees and book reviewers; your work too is appreciated.

In terms then of its history, it is timely therefore to take an historical 'stock take' of the journals remit and its central purpose in the development of scholarship in the field. One of the hallmarks of an academic journal is not only its contribution to the field but also its longevity, especially in these days of 'fast capitalism' texts. (1)

There are a number of the strengths of the journal that we would like to record and highlight:

* The journal attracts leading scholars as authors, reviewers, and Editorial Board members;

* The journal publishes innovative and high quality articles primarily from Australia and New Zealand;

* Contributions from scholars across a diversity of international settings are a feature of the journal;

* The journal has an active policy to support and encourage new and emerging researchers and their scholarship;

* The editorial team works collaboratively and are from New Zealand and Australia;

* The journal does not adhere to or support any particular theoretical, epistemological, or methodological viewpoint; and

* The journal is now available on two leading academic databases.

What this abbreviated list underscores, is the active presence of the journal in the scholarly community and its contribution to the field. In addition, this list provides not only a means to evaluate the journal and its scholarship but also an affirmation of its direction for the next five years. We would therefore like to revise and re-state the remit of History of Education Review to remind readers and authors, past, present and future, of its mandate:

History of Education Review is an international journal committed to the publication of high quality peer reviewed research and theoretical papers located in the history of education. Published twice a year, the journal publishes papers, in English, by established and new and emerging scholars. It accepts a special responsibility for publishing the work of Australian and New Zealand scholars, and focusing on Australian and New Zealand education. In addition, it welcomes, and seeks to publish regularly, scholarly studies from, and about, all parts of the world.

As an academic journal, History of Education Review serves as a focus for the study of the history of education and therefore is deeply connected with shaping the field and the construction of knowledge. It is precisely this dynamic, powerful and reciprocal role by History of Education Review in disciplinary practices and the disciplining of knowledge that renders it an important artefact for the field. And like all historical artefacts, the journal is worthy of scrutiny by researchers in the field. Accordingly, we would like to offer the challenge to readers to undertake an analysis of the journal, its theoretical and methodological 'turns' as well as is contribution to scholarship.

We would also like to encourage the submission of papers about all aspects of educational history, across New Zealand and Australia as well as elsewhere. These papers can be studies of individuals, groups, policies, institutions and/or organisational histories, comparative analyses, historical methodologies, and the history of ideas. We would like to continue to encourage scholarship that is innovative, high quality and, in these managerialist times, well cited by other colleagues. In particular, we encourage new and emerging researchers and doctoral students to see the journal as a place where they can begin their publishing careers. This, after all, is the legacy of History of Education Review that we have experienced, similarly would like to nurture.

Overview of this issue

Looking back on the list of accomplishments that we have documented in this editorial, it is pleasing to see that most, if not all, of the key indices have been met with this issue of the journal. The articles orginate from scholars located in Australia, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand and although, as we later comment, there appears to be a theme that emerges from the articles, each of the theoretical lenses applied present a conceptually different view. In addition, the review forum includes commentators from Australia, England, New Zealand and the US.

The first article in this issue addresses the complex interplay of historical agency, Catholic social teaching and the 'new' woman in Ireland in the 1920s. In her highly nuanced study, Una Ni Bhroimeil draws attention to the extent to which women training college students were objects or agents of their own representation. Through the use of archival records and photographs, the author analyses the dominant discourses of the day and how these were played out along religious, national, and gendered lines. Una does not accept that women students were passive recipients of contemporary ideology and through the use of illustrative material, argues that they positioned themselves in a space where they had the ability to make decisions, to speak and to exert influence.

The Junior Cadet component of the Australian compulsory military training scheme is the focus of the article by Craig Stockings. In the second article of this issue, the author traverses a number of issues to highlight the complex circumstances in which such a scheme existed and its highly politicised nature. Notably, Craig suggests that this scheme was a unique experiment in the history of Australian education and he has examined the ways in which the school curriculum both accommodated and revised military instruction and the cadet scheme itself. Via the presentation of empirical evidence, the author questions whether what was achieved had a military or social purpose.

In the third article, Lorna McLean's attention turns to questions of nationhood, identity and patriotism. Paradoxically, this article complements and extends the previous two contributions in its examination of the idea/ideal of citizenship and the insistent assimilationist agenda of the State. Applying a number of post structuralist and post colonial theories, Lorna examines how the 'modern' citizen was simultaneously produced and reproduced. Furthermore, her analysis of how discourses of citizenship and nation were gendered, raced, and classed in the stories told to and read by the nation's young children offers a finely grained reading of the underpinning historical, social, and political dilemmas facing post-war Australia.

It was not the deliberate intention of the editors to emphasise a particular theme although the work of the fourth author, Peter Rushbrook, continues the examination of history, memory and social heritage. Read alongside Stockings and McLean, this article questions how history is both made and unmade and the extent to which less than celebratory accounts may or may not be part of the historical narrative. Importantly, what the author does in this article is provide an account of the Kapooka Tragedy and so the events are not only re-told and recorded but become a public part of the historical record. Given too that this issue of History of Education Review is due to go to print in April, the focus on nationhood, identity and the historical connection between New Zealand and Australia as evidenced at Gallipoli in April 1915 is especially poignant.

The final article by Gregory Lee and Howard Lee traces the development of post-primary education in New Zealand. The authors begin with problematising current education policy concerns with regards public schooling and raises critical questions about whether historically a 'one size fits all approach' is either workable or justifiable. In neo-liberal times, it is refreshing that historians of education can scrutinise the evidence and advocate for public schooling and not merely see the tensions and complexities as justifiable reasons for 'consumers' to favour private schooling. Again, this article is a worthy forerunner to the Review Forum that focuses on Campbell and Sherington's extensive work on the history of comprehensive schooling in New South Wales.

To conclude, we look forward to nurturing History of Education Review through the next five years and invite readers to contribute to the further scholarly development of the field.

(1) Gee, J.P. and Lankshear, C. 'The new work order: critical language awareness and fast capitalism texts', Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, vol. 16, no. 1, 1995, pp. 5-19.