Contributors' Guidelines
Education Canada is published five times a year by the Canadian Education Association (CEA). Through the magazine, CEA hopes to stimulate dialogue and discussion about education and educational reform by encouraging readers to re-examine their preconceptions about youth, learners, learning, teaching, and the definition of educational success.
Within this broad mandate, the magazine is also committed to supporting and providing voice to CEA’s ongoing research agenda.
Although Education Canada is clearly rooted in Canadian experience and offers a Canadian perspective on educational issues, an important part of its mandate is to introduce readers to relevant international research and experience.
Approximately 25% of Education Canada's feature articles are French.
Content and Article Selection
Content for each issue is determined by the editors (English and French), in consultation with CEA advisors and the editorial board. We strive for a balance of perspectives from various sectors and from different parts of the country.
Each issue has a theme. Several features and possibly one or more departments will offer an in-depth look at the theme. The remaining articles cover a broad range of educational issues and topics.
Story ideas that are especially appropriate for one of our themes are of particular interest.
2013 themes
January 2013 – Student Engagement
Queries needed by July 1, 2012
March 2013 – The Emerging Clientele: Meeting the needs of exceptional students
Queries needed by Oct. 1, 2012
June 2013 – Assessment
Queries needed by December 10, 2012
September 2013 – Teacher Engagement
Queries needed by March 15, 2013
November 2013 – Educational Innovation
Queries needed by May 5, 2013
When selecting or soliciting articles, we ask authors to keep in mind the magazine’s purpose and to situate their subject within the broad discussion of improving learning, creating healthy, engaging school environments, and fostering both equity and excellence in public education. Education Canada aims to bridge research to practice, and vice versa. Thus, whenever possible and appropriate, we’d like articles that are theory- and research-based to consider the material’s relevance to education practitioners, and offer steps individual teachers, schools, or school boards can take to begin to bring theory into practice. Conversely, when articles are based on specific programs or initiatives, the author should address implications for improved learning, improved understanding of youth and the learning process, or on social changes that will have a positive impact on society in general and youth in particular.
Education Canada does not accept articles which promote commercial products or programs. Please restrict mention of your business interests to your bio.
Departments
In addition to feature articles, the magazine includes a number of regular departments that appear in most issues:
Letters: We welcome letters and will print them whenever possible.
Promising Practices: This department showcases innovative programs and practices that are showing exciting results. Tell us how you got the project started, what obstacles you overcame, how students and other stakeholders responded, how you evaluated your success.
Book Review: We run one English and one French review per issue, running about 350 words.
Viewpoint: An essay with, as the title suggests, a point of view. Your argument must be well-reasoned and well-supported, and ideally will tackle an area of controversy — an educational “hot topic.” Occasionally this department may take more of a debate format, giving space to both sides of an issue.
Notre Monde Aujourd’hui / Global Perspectives: This is usually (but not exclusively) a French department looking at international developments and issues in education.
The Voice of Experience: This back-page department is a one-page (700-word) personal reflection on the experience of teaching and learning. Share an encounter with a student that re-affirmed your commitment to teaching, an experience that changed the way you look at things, or a personal experience that amplified your understanding as an educator. We hope this story will leave readers feeling moved, inspired, or re-connected with the value of our work as educators. We welcome submissions from teachers, students, and others who are intimately involved in education.
Format and Style
Education Canada is a magazine, not a scholarly journal. Our readers are well-informed and concerned educators, but not necessarily academics.
With that in mind, we encourage authors to write in an informal, accessible style without compromising important information or analysis. Use real-life stories, examples, quotes from participants and first-person experiences to provide interest and to illustrate key points. Use sub-heads to provide visual interest and help the reader stay with you. Some material (such as lists of practical tips) may lend itself to being separated out into a sidebar box.
In keeping with this informal style, references (endnotes) should only be used when absolutely essential to give credit to material taken directly from other sources. Education Canada follows the University of Chicago Manual of Style for documentation (numbered citations and endnotes). Authors bear full responsibility for the accuracy of quotations and citations. Please restrict your endnotes to a maximum of 10.
Most feature articles are between 1000 and 2500 words. Departments run between 700 and 1500 words. We also welcome proposals for shorter articles.
Submission of Articles
Education Canada contains a mix of solicited and unsolicited articles. Manuscripts should be original and should not be under consideration for publication elsewhere.
Please note that we cannot guarantee consideration of fully developed, unsolicited manuscripts. Short proposals, including a précis of the proposed article and some background information about the author, should be sent to the editor by email (see contact information, below). All proposals will be acknowledged, and accepted or rejected within two months of receipt. Please feel free to contact the editor if you have not heard from us after two months or wish to withdraw your article.
When an article has been solicited or a proposal has been accepted, the editor will establish a deadline for final copy with the author. Failure to provide copy by the agreed-upon deadline may result in cancellation or postponement of publication.
Editorial Decisions
The final decision to publish an article, whether solicited or not, is made only after the complete text has been received. The editor reserves the right to reject material if its style or content is unsuitable for the magazine, or to postpone publication until a later date to accommodate the production process. Occasionally an article may be offered as a web-only exclusive.
The editor also reserves the right to make changes to improve the clarity of the manuscript, to adapt it to magazine format or to shorten it as necessary. Authors may be asked to make revisions to make the article more relevant or accessible to our readers. Authors will be given the opportunity to approve editorial changes prior to publication. Notwithstanding that approval, the editor may make last-minute changes for space as necessary.
Payment
Except under exceptional circumstances, CEA offers no remuneration for articles. Published authors will receive complimentary copies of Education Canada and will be placed on the magazine’s subscription list for one year.
Copyright
Education Canada articles are licensed under a non-exclusive Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License. Users are free to copy, distribute and transmit content provided it is distributed in its entirety, and proper credit is given to the author, Education Canada, and to CEA and its website www.cea-ace.ca. Users may not use content for commercial purposes. Users may not alter, transform, or build upon content. For more information about the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives license, view the License Deed and Legal Code.
Please send proposals for English articles to:
Holly Bennett, Editor
Education Canada
119 Spadina Ave., #705
Toronto, ON M5V 2L1
Tel: (705) 745-1419
editor@cea-ace.ca
Please send proposals for French articles to:
Yolande Nantel, Rédactrice
Canadian Education Association
119 Spadina Avenue, #705
Toronto, ON, M5V 2L1
Tel: (416) 591-6300
Fax: (416) 591-5345
redaction@cea-ace.ca
