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Editorial. The International Journal of Educational
Psychology: Psychological Research for the Twenty­First
Century
Sandra Racionero Plaza1

1) University of Barcelona, Spain.
Date of publication: February, 24th 2012.

To cite this editorial: Racionero Plaza, S. (2012). Editorial. The
International Journal of Educational Psychology: Psychological Research
for the Twenty­First Century, International Journal of Educational
Psychology (IJEP), 1(1), 1­4. DOI: 10.4471/ijep.2012.00
To link this editorial: http://dx.doi.org/10.4471/ijep.2012.00

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IJEP – International Journal of Educational Psychology Vol. 1 No. 1.

Editorial. The International
Journal of Educational Psychology:
Psychological Research for the
Twenty­First Century
Sandra Racionero Plaza
University of Barcelona

portant social challenges. This priority has left behind the old debate
between descriptive and normative science, and between basic and applied
research. The discussion is now focused on how to make scientific findings
more relevant and useful in everyday life. Commitment to this social turn
is a central reason for the emergence of the International Journal of
Educational Psychology (IJEP).

More than fifteen years ago, in The Culture of Education, Jerome Bruner
(1996) stated that research about teaching and learning processes in pursuit
of particular goals that takes into account the cultural setting of
development is the stuff not only of good policy research but good
psychological science (p.176). It is that kind of psychological research and
science which IJEP aims at disseminating. IJEP publishes works that do not
only provide new insights about the psychological mechanisms involved in
most pressing problems in education, such as school failure and
disengagement, but the journal is mainly concerned with what is –in
Bruner’s words­ Possible, that is, IJEP shares how we can successfully
tackle developmental threats to ultimately foster all students’ learning. It is
the Possible what administrators, policy­makers, educators, children,
adolescents, and their families need to know for their activities in all the
myriad of environments where learning and development take place every
day and for every individual around the world. Accordingly, scientific

2012 Hipatia Press
ISSN 2014­3591
DOI:10.4471/ijep.2012.00

I t is increasingly acknowledged that research should serve thepublic good. The international scientific community mainly agreesthat scientific inquiry should inform ways to address the most im­



studies of both qualitative and quantitative nature that deepen on
psychological and socio­cultural strengths, actions, and programs that
overcome threats to learning and development and open up opportunities
for better education are of much interest for the International Journal of
Educational Psychology.

Under any circumstance no child or adolescent should be deprived from
an education that aids flourishing all her or his capacities and developing
strongly at social, cognitive and emotional levels. Yet this right is rarely
performed universally. One reason is because despite we have accumulated
much understanding about how people learn and develop best, up to date,
this knowledge has not been applied enough into creating suitable teaching
and learning approaches, learning environments, and curricula. This
disconnection between scientific research and practice in the field of
learning and instruction is quite alarming. Unless instruction in schools
takes into account evidence from research in educational psychology and in
other educational sciences, educational systems will keep failing students
from most vulnerable groups and will discourage their educational
expectations. As researchers in educational psychology we should address
this detachment between scientific research and educational practice. The
International Journal of Educational Psychology is committed to do so. It
contributes to keep lifting some educational practice above the level of
supposition through publishing theoretical analyses and empirical studies of
school and non­school learning environments that have proved to be tools,
in Vygotsky’s (1978) sense, that boost development. The final aim is that
IJEP articles and reviews aid effecting evidence­based changes in
education.

All the aforementioned principles (social utility of psychological
research, the need for studying the Possible, and evidence­based education)
are reflected in this inaugural issue, which starts “on the shoulders of
giants” (Merton, 1965) with an article written by Dr. Jerome Bruner. Bruner
sets the bases for the psychological study of educational processes; he
claims that culture or mind cannot be understood without taking into
account how they interact with each other in a given context, as it is
through culture that we transcend our biological constrains. Accordingly,
Bruner warns us that the study of mind apart from the “possible worlds”
created by culture falls short to understand cognition. The International
Journal of Educational Psychology acknowledges this dialectic and
provides a forum for the communication and discussion of new “possible
worlds” created through scientific discovery and which make positive
development and enhanced learning available to all. This translates into the

Sandra Racionero Plaza­ Editorial2



publication not only of analyses of existing problems and constrains for
better learning and development –the Established, for Bruner­, but also, and
mainly, of social and cultural creations that can transcend those barriers
–the Possible­.

This dialectic approach is evidenced in the findings reported in the
article by Stephen Quintana. In his study of sojourner children’s
understanding of nationality from a developmental point of view, Quintana
found that such understanding was influenced, on the one hand, by
chronological age and, on the other hand, by degree of cross­national
experience. Issues of national, racial, and linguistic identity were found to
be affected by age, but culture played an influential role as identifications
based on racial salience were different depending on degree of exposure to
different cultures. This finding illustrates another central postulate in
Bruner’s article: the need for psychology to study behaviour and mind in
their context. This idea finds its roots in Vygotsky’s (1978) theory of
development, and today it is supported widely among central
developmental psychologists (Rogoff, 2003; Lave & Wenger, 1991).

Quintana’s paper also illustrates the aim of IJEP of publishing articles
that move us forward in the state of the art regarding central educational
psychology issues and social challenges. Quintana presents a new
developmental model of sojourner children’s understanding of nationality, a
relevant topic in societies which are increasingly diverse and require
intercultural understanding to advance.

The article by Robert Sternberg shows another central principle of IJEP
discussed before: the need for education to be grounded in research
findings. In his article, Sternberg argues that much teaching is ineffective
because it is not applied in an ethical manner. The shortcoming of schools
for developing ethical reasoning in children has had negative effects in
society. But Sternberg’s analysis goes beyondshedding light on the
problem. Sternberg announces both the Possible: ethical reasoning can be
taught across the curriculum, and the tool to turn the possible into
experience: an eight­step model of ethical reasoning. Schools do not need
to try out ways to enhance the development of ethical reasoning in children;
now they have an evidence­based model to be effective in that regard.

This possibility approach is also well illustrated in the article by Rocío
García. Her paper presents the theory of dialogic learning, an innovative
learning theory in line with the contemporary dialogic turn of the learning
sciences. García deepens into this theory through analyzing specific ways in
which some principles of the theory manifest and which have proved to be
successful in raising the academic achievement of children from vulnerable

International Journal of Educational Psychology (IJEP), 1(1) 3



backgrounds. Further, García’s article responds to another core principle of
IJEP, the one about making research relevant for the public. García proves
that the inclusion of the voices of people from ethnic minorities in the
research process, in close dialogue with researchers, eventually improves
students’ learning and the school­community relations. As a whole, García’s
article combines what Bruner refers as good psychological science and
good policy research.

IJEP also publishes reviews of books that share a new sight on central
psychological and educational issues. As a first example of this, Molina
reviews Gardner’s book Truth, Beauty, and Goodness Reframed. Educating
for the Virtues in the Twenty­First Century. Dr. Gardner claims that as
societies have undergone tremendous changes over the past decades, the
three classical virtues that have guided human thoughts and behavior
throughout history have also experienced an important transformation.
Therefore, Gardner claims that if schools are to cultivate these virtues in
society, the teaching of truth, beauty, and goodness should be re­
conceptualized. Importantly, Gardner shares how this can be done.

Overall, the set of articles and the book review that make up this first
issue of IJEP serve the general commitment of the journal to contribute
from scientific research in psychology to an education that simultaneously
provides excellence in learning and enables personal development for all.
For IJEP, this commitment is not a question of choice but the task of
psychological research for the twenty­first century.

References
Bruner, J. (1996). The culture of education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard

University Press.
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral

Participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Merton, R. K. (1965). On the Shoulders of Giants. New York: Free Press.
Rogoff, B. (2003). The cultural nature of human development. New York:

Oxford University Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard

University Press.

Sandra Racionero Plaza ­ Editorial4