Wk4 Reflection: Publishing_Leadership Project, Part 2 of 2

POST 5

Years ago, I took a 4-day seminar at UCLA extension on writing the personal essay.  We spent an entire morning—1/8 of our time together—addressing the question of where to publish.  Because fun as it is to write something and polish it till it’s all shiny, it just stays an empty vine if you don’t put it out there and let it bear fruit. 

But therein lies a huge risk for those of us who haven’t been risk-takers:  REJECTION!  So my first impulse is to start someplace small.  But I find myself stopping and analyzing my first impulse these days!

So I checked out one “Big Name” publication and one that seems like an easier fit.

The NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) is a well established and prestigious group that actually runs several publications.  The one that seemed closest my project’s idea is English Education, which, to quote their website (http://www.ncte.org/journals/ee/write) “serves those NCTE members who are engaged in the preparation, support, and continuing education of teachers of English language arts/literacy.”  I’m really not as interested in publishing “traditional theoretical and research articles,” but the second type of article is described as “shorter, innovative/nontraditional ‘Extending the Conversation’ articles.”  That would give me some fluidity in my style, as well as shortening the part of the lit review I’d need to include.

The second publication is Association for Educational Communications and Technology, one of many Springer publications, which could be just as prestigious as NCTE, for all I know, which isn’t, in this arena, much.  This publication also has a Research Section, which is looking for rigorous research-oriented articles, as well as a Development Section, which, in addition to instructional design research papers, welcomes, according to their website (http://www.aect.org/intranet/Publications/index.asp), “papers that report outcomes of innovative approaches in applying technology to instructional development.”  That sounds like me.

Having to pick one, as each publication requires that all articles be submitted to theirs exclusively, I will probably go with the one I’m more familiar with first, but I’m not sure how open NCTE is, in spite of their “innovative/nontraditional” description, to technological advances like cell phones in the classroom.  (I’m afraid I speak from experience—previous experience, I should say!—here.)  But now that I am an innovator, in addition to being a proselyte, I’d of course like to start changing the world in the very bastion of traditionalism!  Well, at least I’m not pretending to not be who I am…