Editorial.

Issue 50.1 of the Australian Journal of Education marks our 50th year. The AJE was established back in 1957 under the editorship of Professor Bill Connell. In the 50 years since then, the AJE has drawn upon research conducted in Australia and internationally to inform educational researchers, as well as educators, administrators and policymakers, about issues of contemporary concern in education. It has sought to publish research studies that contribute to educational knowledge and research methodologies, and that review findings of research studies.

The AJE has been under the Editorship of Simon Marginson from 2001 to 2005, and the 50th year also marks a change in the Editorship. John Ainley, Deputy CEO at the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), takes up the postas Editor, while Steve Holden, Publishing Manager--Journals at ACER Press, becomes the Managing Editor.

Simon's editorial connection with the journal spans 16 years. He became a member of the Editorial Advisory Board in 1990 and was a frequent contributor to the journal during that time, becoming Editor in 2001. It's to be expected that such an involvement will leave a lasting legacy and indeed the articles in this issue reflect that, being the result of a peer-review process operating under his Editorship. In the following issues this year you can expect to see further articles that are the result of that peer-review process under his Editorship.

It might fairly be expected, however, that a change of Editors will lead to some changes to the AJE. It's our aim that the journal continue to embrace all fields of education and training, to publish research studies about education, but also to publish articles that address education in relation to other fields, drawing upon research conducted in Australia and internationally. We'll be publishing articles that address research into educational administration and organisation; learning and teaching; teachers and teacher education; early childhood education and postsecondary education and training; the curriculum, particularly literacy; assessment; the social and economic context of education, including health; and educational policy and evaluation. We'll also be publishing articles that address research methodology. Our aim, in a word, is to publish quality, but quality content is only part of the story. We also want to ensure that the journal reaches as wide a readership as possible, which is why the full text of the AJE is now available online through Thomson Gale, EBSCO, HW Wilson and RMIT Informit. The AJE will, however, also continue to appear as a print publication.

Online publication, as Simon noted in his Editorial for issue 49.2, is vital for the journal. Publication is about reach and it is about impact. In order to reach that broad community of educational researchers, educators, administrators and policymakers in all fields of education and training and other related fields, we believe full-text online publication will be of immense importance. But impact, so often conflated with citation, is really about publishing content that actually makes a difference to education where it happens. We want the AJE to have an impact on real practices, affecting the everyday experience of educators and learners, making a real difference and improving learning.

In this issue, Robert Ellis, Charlotte Taylor and Helen Drury examine the importance of writing for first-year undergraduate science students, in 'University student conceptions of learning science through writing'. Their research suggests important implications for the integration of writing experiences into university subjects and for tutor approaches to writing tuition.

In 'Involvement of fathers in primary school activities', Richard Fletcher and Simone Silberberg report on their research on differences in the kind and level of involvement of fathers and mothers in primary schools in regional New South Wales. Their research, which indicates that the involvement of fathers in primary school parent programs is lower than the involvement of mothers, and that fathers tend to be involved in activities that involve little interaction with their child or with teachers, suggests that local school initiatives are not altogether successful and that specific initiatives within and across schools, informed by further research, are needed to enhance the involvement of fathers in schools.

George Morgan, in 'Memory and marginalisation--Aboriginality and education in the assimilation era', explores the life history narratives of three Indigenous people who were brought to live in Sydney as children in this period. Morgan examines the processes by which, in spite of the dominant policy position of assimilation at the time, they were alienated from the school education system, and identifies a poor fit between Indigenous people and the meritocratic narratives typical in schools, as well as between the Indigenous obligation to family and home country, and what he calls the 'rhythms of life' associated with school education.

In Western Australia there are a relatively small number of students whose behaviour is so severe that they are precluded from participating in regular schools. The result is that the only real alternative education option for most such students is a placement in the Schools of Isolated and Distance Education (SIDE) program. Chris Forlin and Gay Tierney, in 'Accommodating students excluded from regular schools in schools of isolated and distance education', report on their research into alternative education through the SIDE program, and identify a number of key issues pertaining to student learning, communication, attitude and the lack of availability of appropriate alternative programs for these students.

In 'The impact of sound-field amplification in mainstream cross-cultural classrooms', parts 1 and 2, Robyn Massie and Harvey Dillon report on their study of the effects of sound-field amplification intervention on the acquisition of specific educational goals for children in mainstream cross-cultural classrooms. In 'Part 1: Educational outcomes', they report on the beneficial effects of amplification for students in reading, writing and numeracy, beneficial effects that occurred irrespective of whether children had English as a native language or as a second language. 'Part 2: Teacher and child opinions', presents teachers' and children's views of the effectiveness of sound-field amplification intervention, with two significant effects: teachers reported less vocal strain as a major benefit, while children reported that they could hear better, clearer or louder.

We wish AJE readers good reading, and invite contributions that report on research from all fields of education and training, and other related fields that really make a difference to education where it happens.

John Ainley

Steve Holden

Australian Council for Educational Research