Topical Readings-civic education

    The selection of journals is a crucial step for a potential researcher. It’s essential for researchers to access the latest trends in their research field, as time limited and every minute counts.
    Therefore, to locate the right journals, I set some regulations before searching. First, the recommendation journal list I got from my advisor. Second, the journals which publish articles relevant to my research field. My core research field is civic education so that’s my research key words. Third, I will check the impact factor according to the instructions on Brightspace, of course, the higher the better.
    Through the three regulations, I find 3 journals which I think will be very helpful for my future research. Here are my journal lists:

1)Journal of School Choice
    The journal was first published in 2006 by Routledge, Taylor & Francis, and has 4 issues every year. The 2023IF of this journal was 1.44, and 2023JIF was 0.443. The journal is one of the tier 2 educational journals. Based on this information, I believe this journal has a reputable journal. 
    The Journal publishes journals about school system, school reform, school methodologies from a global perspective through multiple research methods. Civic education is one of the most common key words in the journal. Thus, the targeted audiences are researchers and educators who focus on these educational fields, and some policymakers and administrators can also get precious hints from the journal.
    I looked through the titles of articles and find the journal also catch the trend, there are some articles closely linked with major social events such as COVID-19. 
    The reason why I am interested in this journal is that firstly my advisor recommended this journal. Second, after reading some of these articles in this journal, I find this journal not only stay close to my core research field, but also some relative articles broaden my horizons. For example, the article titled “A Comprehensive Literature Review of Civic Efficacy and Civics Education in Private and Catholic Schools”, it’s an excellent literature review which compare the civic education implementation in Private schools, Catholic schools and public schools, and indicated that one of the reasons that stipulated the successful civic education in private and Catholic schools was they combined the civic education with the moral instructions, moreover, Catholic schools provided students with service learning chances to strengthen students’ civic efficacy. By contrast, the public school demonstrated on the engaging with the diverse perspectives(Johnson, C. S., Qin, X., & Hinton, H, 2020). Through reading this article, I get to know the basic situation of civic education in three different kinds of schools, their focus on civic education, and the highlights of their curriculum. 

2)American Educational Research Journal
    American Educational Research Journal is the journal of The American Educational Studies Association(AESA), an international society founded in 1968. The publisher is Taylor & Francis, a leading publisher in research field. The journal is at tier 2, with 1.3 impact factor in 2023. The 5 year IF is 1.5. Regarding the editorial board, the editors all come from top universities and research institution all over the world, which indicates that the journal has a global perspective.
    The journal focuses on the social and educational topics, not limited to schools. It includes topics in history, sociology, anthropology etc, and some special areas such as race studies, gender studies, cultural studies. So, the journal has a broad scope of educational issues. Due to the multiple topics in this journal, I consider educators, teachers, and graduate students in the major of education would be the targeted audiences. Also, the interdisciplinary researchers would be interested in the intersection research topics with education. 
   I want to introduce an article about Ethel Thompson Overby in this journal. The article described an excellent educator, Ethel Thompson Overby’s work, from 1910-1958 in Virginia from a historical perspective. Through reading this article, I gained insight into how civic education could light the democratic values, promote the social justice, and stimulate the societal reform. Ethel Overby encouraged teachers to vote and some other public tasks. She also provided educational resources for students through organizing Parent-Teacher Associations(PTAs) and school libraries. These strategies, successfully empowered the African American students to understand their civic responsibilities in society, which refers to as “Light the Candle”. The article portrays Thompson’s career through historical qualitative methodology, including primary and secondary sources such as interviews, archival materials etc(Adah L. Ward Randolph ,2012). It is not a work about current society but it strongly suggests how civic education could ignite a democracy society. In my opinion, this article successfully transmitted me how significantly civic education could change the communities and citizens, from a segregated south to a open-minded south. I can have a deeper understanding of the development of civic education through historical aspect. This article has a supportive material analysis to let audiences get to understand the marvellous work that Overby had done. The author focuses on the civic education ,especially under the segregated background, and successfully discussed the Overby’s theory and practice through a clear structure and logical expression. As a history fan, I am fond of this type of articles. It has relatively close relationship with my core research interest, and matches my taste, too. However, understanding the current state of civic education in public schools may help me more in my future research direction. Therefore, my next step is to explore recent resources on civic education. 
    In conclusion , these are my selections of five journals. It indeed a valuable practice for me to identify reputable and reliable journals through writing this assignment. I have found some interesting articles, however some of them come from unreliable resources through checking journal metrics. In order to make sure of the rigor of research, I chose to discard them. In the process of selecting these journals, I also read great articles which enrich my knowledge in my core research. I have written down questions after I look through these articles. Although they are vague, I believe these questions will guide my research direction down the road.

Reference

Johnson, C. S., Qin, X., & Hinton, H. (2020). The Civic Efficacy of Charter Schools: A Literature Review. Journal of School Choice, 14(2), 254–279. 

Adah L. Ward Randolph (2012) “It is Better to Light a Candle Than to Curse the Darkness”: Ethel Thompson Overby and Democratic Schooling in Richmond, Virginia, 1910–1958, Educational Studies, 48:3, 220-243, DOI: 10.1080/00131946.2012.660795