why a professional magazine makes sense

We've been overwhelmed by the number of encouraging notes we've received from friends and readers, and many people who have followed the fortunes of Teacher Plus over the years and are sad to see it go. Many have offered direct support in some measure, others have asked what they can do to help. It gives us hope that the magazine--or an avatar of it--will survive.

Month after month, while putting together the magazine, one page was always hard to fill: the space we called "Forum", letters from readers. Sometimes we actually had to ask people to write letters! In more recent months we have had a slightly higher rate of response, but nowhere near the number of notes we have received in response to our mail about our decision to stop publication!

There have been days across these 21 years when we have sat down and taken apart the reasons for poor reader response and the failure to grow our subscription base to the extent we thought possible. Do teachers just not read. we wondered? Is it a question off too much work and too little time? Or do they not see themselves as "professionals" who need to also be involved in the development of the discipline and its application? Do they not think their ideas are worth sharing?

When we spoke to readers directly, most of them said they enjoyed reading the magazine, that they found some bits useful, others not really applicable to their situation... but overall they were positive about the magazine. So we continued to wonder, not being able to understand why response was so poor (other than knowing that we needed to spend much more time, effort and money or simply getting the word out).

We all know that there are communities of practice and communities of knowledge, and in many cases the two do not interact. The gap then between findings from research and reflection and their application to the sphere of practice keeps widening, although the raison d'être of the former is to influence and help positively impact the latter. Research in medicine, for instance, directly leads to better treatment options; research in engineering leads to new products or improvements on existing ones. So why is it that research in education and child development takes so much time to reach the classroom? Why do we not have more action research? Why are university departments of education so distanced from the practising teacher?

There are certainly efforts to bridge this gap; some schools actively promote research into practice for instance, and some university departments are making more concerted efforts to link with teachers and real classrooms, such as JNU's University Schools Resource Network. But these kinds of connections need to grow and flourish if the classroom (and all kinds of classrooms) are to benefit from the kind of thinking and innovation that goes on in higher education.

Teacher Plus, and such teacher magazines are a space where this gap can be addressed. Without unduly privileging either the academic or the practitioner, a professional magazine can equally address both and build bridges from one type of thinking to its testing in the field.

When looked at like this, issues of time or need become irrelevant. The content becomes relevant--and imperative for work to go on, with any measure of quality and meaning.