Education 3–13: Supervising Editorship for special issues

Education 3–13 boasts a large international readership of researchers and teachers.

The centre is responsible for the development of special issues of the journal and appointment of guest editors for special issues. This role presents an excellent opportunity for HHCP to impact on children’s education by developing special issues that tackle key issues in primary and early years education.

Future Special Issues

Call for papers

The next special issue of Education 3–13 will be on the theme of “Celebrating the Arts and Humanities in Primary Education”. It will address the growing concern that the arts and the humanities including areas of learning such as visual arts, music, drama, history, geography and religious education are being marginalised in primary curricula, both in the UK and internationally. Access the call for papers for this issue. 

Call for proposals

A proposal for a Special Issue of the journal Education 3–13 can be made to the Supervising Editors, who are all members of the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Pedagogy (0 to 11 Years) (HHCP), and emailed to hhcp@ucl.ac.uk. 

A proposal requires the following:

1. Proposed title of the special issue.
2. A clear rationale explaining the contribution that the special issue would make to primary education. All special issues in Education 3–13 have to have material that is relevant to education practice and policy. The proposal should make clear how this relevance will be met, and ideally include ideas about engagement of practitioners in the special issue.
3. The name(s), title and affiliation of the guest editor of the special issue, and brief information about their experience, including of editing peer-reviewed research articles.
4. Proposed authors, paper titles, and abstracts (maximum 400 words per abstract excluding references which must be included) for articles to be included in the special issue. Each special issue should be 70,000 to 80,000 words in length and should include between eight to ten articles, in the range of 6,000 to 8,000 words each, plus editorial. Eight articles is ideal but it may be possible to have a maximum of 10. Proposed editors should take account of the possibility of papers being rejected, as a result of peer-review, in their thinking about the number of papers proposed.
5. Short bios (one page max) of the proposed editor and authors.
6. A list of people who will carry out one round of reviews. The special issue guest editor will be responsible for leading one round of peer reviews. The HHCP special issue Supervising Editors will carry out the other round of reviews.
7. The expected timescale for the publication of the special issue bearing in mind that the issue goes to the publisher three months before it is published. This timescale must include dates for receipt of draft papers, receipt of amended papers, time for peer review, desired submission to journal date, and desired publication date.

Reviewing proposals

Proposals will be reviewed by members of HHCP and as appropriate sent to the Editor of Education 3–13, Mark Brundrett, and to Gary Beauchamp, Chair of the Association for the Study of Primary Education (ASPE).

The HHCP Special Issue Supervising Editors will as necessary consult the Editorial Board of 3–13 in reaching decisions about special issues to be published.

The following information will be sent to the board:

• The proposal.
• Note about the date the proposal was received.
• Notes from HHCP Special Issue Supervising Editor about the nature of the proposal.

We aim to communicate a decision about the proposal within one month.

Past special issues 

The Future of the Curriculum: Toward Child-Centred, Democratic Education
Volume 53, Issue 7, 2025 pages 1067–1234

Special issue: Children’s Language, Literacy and Literature
Volume 52, Issue 7, 2024 pages 911–1032

Reimagining Education after Covid
Volume 52, Issue 1, 2024 pages 1–121

Developing Children’s Agency in Theory and Practice
Volume 50, Issue 4, 2022 pages 435–535

Related links

• Association for the Study of Primary Education