Troy Sadler, the Thomas James Distinguished Professor of Experiential Learning at Carolina’s School of Education, has been selected to serve as an editor-in-chief of the Journal of Research in Science Teaching.
Sadler, who joined the School of Education this fall, will serve with Felicia Moore Mensah of Teachers College at Columbia University. Their term begins in January, running through 2025.
The Journal of Research in Science Teaching, or JRST, is the leading academic journal in the field of science education. JRST articles were downloaded more than 341,000 times in 2018, an increase of 200% in the past ten years, outpacing other journals in its area of research. It is the official journal of NARST: A Worldwide Organization for Improving Science Teaching and Learning Through Research.
With Sadler becoming one of the JRST editors, the journal remains associated with the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Education as for the past five years Fouad Abd-El-Khalick, dean and professor at the School, has served as one of the two editors-in-chief with Dana Zeidler of the University of South Florida.
Sadler and Mensah plan to work to expand the journal’s reach and increasing the diversity of its contributors, editorial team, reviewers and readers. Mensah becomes the first African American co-editor for JRST, and her areas of expertise in identity and multiculturalism will help inform their approach to promoting diversity within the journal.
Among other plans, the two expect to
- Establish a social media presence for the journal, using it to disseminate findings to researchers, teachers, policymakers and others.
- Experiment with having authors highlight key findings in one-page overviews, written in non-technical language to make it more accessible for non-researchers. The briefs would be shared via social media, in news releases and in other venues to reach a wider audience.
Kihyun “Kelly” Ryoo, an associate professor at the School of Education who has been an editorial review board member with JRST since last year, will serve as an associate editor.