World-leading UCL journal publishes debates & research on development education & global learning

A fully open-access journal provides researchers and practitioners across the world the opportunity to read and publish research in development education and global learning.

Development education, global learning and global citizenship education were not the primary focus of any academic journals before 2008. Since then, the world-leading ‘International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning’, published by UCL Press, has filled that gap by publishing the outcomes of educational research and current debates in these areas.

“As the SDGs become increasingly recognised as a frame of reference for all forms of learning around the world, the journal provides an academic reference point to comment on progress towards the goals,” says Professor Doug Bourn, Co-Director of UCL Institute of Education’s Development Education Research Centre (DERC), who founded the journal.

The journal publishes research from all over the world, helping to advance theoretical and empirical understanding of development education and global learning through examination of research, policy and practice in the field.

“Its areas of focus encompass approaches to education and learning that challenge learners to link their own experience to the realities of global issues such as inequality, poverty and sustainability, with the aim of contributing positively in both their own contexts and globally,” explains Dr Clare Bentall, the current Editor-in-Chief.

As the SDGs become increasingly recognised as a frame of reference for all forms of learning around the world, the journal provides an academic reference point to comment on progress on these goals and to undertake research on the themes it addresses.

Recent issues of the journal have brought a range of key debates to the attention of the international academic and research community, including: the role of education in promoting the SDG agenda; the role of policy in shaping discourse and practice of global citizenship; and how social movements contribute to education for social justice.

It has also considered the challenges of learning through volunteering and other forms of North-South collaboration, and appropriate pedagogical practices for promoting critical engagement with global issues, at all levels of education.