Call for Student Board Members for the American Journal of Education

Greetings Graduate Students,

The American Journal of Education (AJE) is seeking doctoral and master’s student applicants for the AJE Student Board. AJE is a core journal in the field of education that covers a broad spectrum of educational research (including K-12 and higher education levels), and has been edited by Penn State faculty since 2003.

AJE’s Student Board provides an exciting opportunity for graduate students to publish original pieces of writing, learn more about reviewing and publishing in the field of education, and form relationships with senior scholars.

Student Board members run the AJE Forum website (www.ajeforum.com), an online venue that complements and extends the print edition of AJE by publishing original opinion pieces, interviews with top scholars, and reviews of work in high-interest areas of education research. Student Board members craft original content for AJE Forum, solicit content from other education bloggers and graduate students from outside Penn State, help to manage the day-to-day operations of the website, and network with other education bloggers to create an ongoing dialogue about educational issues among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers.

Time commitment is estimated at 5-10 hours per month, with formal meetings/professional development once a month, but mostly independent, on-your-own-schedule work. Appointments to the Student Board will be for one academic year, with the possibility of reappointment. The Student Board is supported by AJE’s senior board members and managing editors.

Benefits of becoming an AJE Student Board member

Student board members…

• develop experience in writing about educational issues for a wide audience
• learn important skills for disseminating one’s work as a scholar, such as building a social media presence and managing a website
• strengthen their CVs through the leadership opportunities provided within AJE Forum, as well as through the writing opportunities the Forum provides (many student board members have a CV section called “Peer Reviewed Online Writing”)
• gain experience reviewing articles submitted for the AJE Forum website, as well as potentially reviewing articles submitted for publication in the American Journal of Education (dependent upon research expertise and manuscript availability)
• participate in professional development workshops on reviewing, editing, and publishing, led by AJE board members and journal editors in the College of Education.

Application Procedures

We are looking for general members of the AJE Student Board. If interested in becoming a member of the Student Board please send (1) a letter of interest and (2) a writing sample of 1,000-1,500 words to ajed@psu.edu. We are looking for individuals who can competently and confidently complete a variety of tasks, including but not limited to: reviewing pieces, conducting final technical edits of manuscripts, posting to the website, writing engaging and scholarly articles, managing social media accounts, and coordinating with authors series of collaborative articles.

Application emails are due by NOON on Friday, September 14, 2018

(1) The Letter of Interest should introduce yourself, tell us why you are interested in the opportunity, and illustrate your interest with any relevant past experiences or future aspirations. Please also tell us your primary area of interest in education scholarship, as well as which tasks from above you feel most comfortable completing.

(2) For the Writing Sample, we ask that you take a look at some of the pieces recently published on AJE Forum, available at www.ajeforum.com, and draft a 1,000 to 1,500-word opinion piece on a concern or question of your choice. This piece will play a strong role in our decision of whom to invite to serve on the Student Board. The piece will be evaluated for (1) clear, engaging writing style; (2) thought-provoking framing of your piece’s question/concern; (3) well considered connections to pieces in scholarly and/or popular media outlets; (4) evidence of strong proofreading and editing skills (1-5 references are sufficient). We emphasize that, while your piece should reflect a level of scholarly knowledge, it absolutely must be driven by a concern, question, and opinion that is thought provoking and interesting to a well-informed reader (i.e., someone who is not necessarily a content expert).

Please submit your application materials no later than NOON on Friday, September 14, 2018 to ajed@psu.edu. Should you have any clarifying questions, please email AJE managing editors, Jeremy Anderson and Eric McGinnis, at ajed@psu.edu.

Thank you.

Gerry LeTendre and Dana Mitra, Editors,
American Journal of Education

Mindy Kornhaber
AJE Forum Student Board Advisor