For its 200th issue, the Revue française de pédagogie, a generalist journal of research in education and one of the leading publication on the subject in the French-speaking world, decided to take a fresh look at one the fundamental questions which have defined it since it was first published in 1967: the relationship between academic research, politics, administration and professional practice in education.
Based on a new call for papers, this issue consists of articles by scholars and contributions from stakeholders from a range of backgrounds (experts, policy makers, activists etc.).
The articles cover a wide variety of domestic and institutional situations including: the role and functioning of "High Councils" for education in France and Quebec; media and academic debate and controversy surrounding an "inclusive education" law in the Czech Republic; the design of teaching sequences in Mexico; research-based support for schools in the Swiss canton of Vaud; or the place of research in some professional journals which interface with the academic world.
Two main themes run through the issue: the study of various spaces, resources or stakeholders which perform a mediating role between academic research and other areas, and the analysis of the place of and changes in research in a non-academic context (expertise or training situations, for instance).
In this regard, this issue makes a significant contribution to the many current studies on the role of academic research and how it is organised in a so-called knowledge society.