Journal Rankings: positioning the field of educational research and educational academics

Title
Journal Rankings: positioning the field of educational research and educational academics
Publication Date
2011
Author(s)
Hardy, Ian
Heimans, Stephen
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4573-9461
Email: sheimans@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:sheimans
Lingard, Bob
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Sage Publications Ltd
Place of publication
United Kingdom
DOI
10.2304/power.2011.3.1.5
UNE publication id
une:14259
Abstract
This article explores the way in which journal ranking processes in education impact upon the field of education and educational researchers. The article draws upon the recent moves to rank order journals in academic disciplines/domains of research in Australia through the introduction of the ERA - Excellence in Research for Australia - as a means of evaluating academic work. Drawing upon an analysis of the specific ordering of 'leading' journals in education according to the ERA and the national locations of journal editors, the article focuses on how these processes of 'academic accountancy' have implications for the field of educational research, as well as for individual academics measured and monitored through this process. The research demonstrates how already privileged Anglo-US research and research outlets continue to be consecrated and legitimated at the expense of more local and alternative programs and outlets. The article suggests that the push to manage and measure research productivity, taken up in policy within and across specific nation states (in this case, Australia), ignores the breadth of existing research within the field of educational research and potentially narrows the nature of the research undertaken by individual academics and reduces the potential publication outlets, thereby contributing to the recalibration and repositioning of academic work.
Link
Citation
Power and Education, 3(1), p. 5-17
ISSN
1757-7438
Start page
5
End page
17

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