The UConn Neag School of Education’s academic journal has published its fourth issue, thanks to the hard work and dedication of a group of graduate students.

“We are pleased to share the fourth issue of the Neag School of Education Journal,” reads a letter from the journal’s board members in the 2026 issue. “We take pride in providing a supportive “testing-ground” for graduate authors to refine their original work in collaboration with our graduate-led editorial board. Fundamentally, the Neag School of Education Journal is committed to the growth and development of emergent educational researchers across fields. After much hard work and dedication from our authors and editorial board, we are thrilled to unveil the culmination of their efforts – six pieces that showcase the excellence of our 2026 edition.”

The Neag School of Education Journal is an editor-reviewed, open-access, annual journal. Founded and run by graduate students and published online through the Neag School, its primary purpose is to offer a platform for graduate students and education professionals to share their research and knowledge with academic communities. It also hopes to broaden and deepen the literature of education as written and experienced by graduate students and early-career scholars. Eight UConn graduate students make up the journal’s current board.

The journal prizes pieces that seek to “improve education and social systems in order to facilitate increasingly effective, equitable, and socially just practices for educators and practitioners from a variety of fields, perspectives, and theoretical lenses as they serve their local communities.”

The six articles accepted and published in the 2026 issue are:

• “Integrating Human Rights and Social Justice Education through Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education in Sub-Saharan Africa” – a proposal for a justice-oriented framework that integrates Human Rights Education (HRE) and Social Justice Education (SJE) within Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) by drawing from linguistic human rights scholarship, critical pedagogy, and postcolonial theory.
• “Co-Generating a Dissertation: Camaraderie, SEL Competencies, and the Cohort Community” – a reflective narrative of the author’s journey through a Social, Emotional, and Academic Learning (SEAL) doctoral program focused on the value of community.
• “The Politics of Language: Linguistic Justice and the Unfinished Revolution in Myanmar’s Education” – an essay that argues that Myanmar’s current educational crisis is the direct outcome of a long-unresolved struggle over linguistic justice by tracing how successive regimes have mobilized schools to impose centralized authority.
• “Evaluating Two-Way Immersion Programs: A Literature Review of Their Role in Advancing Equity for Emergent Bilingual Learners” – an examination of how U.S.-based Two-Way Immersion (TWI) programs promote academic equity and biliteracy for K–12 Emergent Bilingual Learners.
• “Easier Said Than Taught: Navigating the Development and Application of Critical Thinking” – a narrative literature review of scholarly research of Critical Thinking (CT) development for students.
• “From Classroom to Community Spaces: The Intersection of Peace, Democracy Education, and Public Dialogue in Norway” – a pilot study that explores how facilitated public dialogue in Norway extends democratic learning from K-12 schooling into community spaces that confront racism, antisemitism, and Islamophobia.

In addition to providing graduate students and early-career scholars an opportunity to share their work more widely, the editors say the journal fosters collaboration among students and their colleagues. It also helps to demystify the publishing process and supports editors as they move toward publishing their own work in the field. Making the journal open access was also important, ensuring that its content could serve as an available source of information for current and future practitioners. Importantly, authors maintain their copyright and thus can work on their pieces after publication for future submission elsewhere – a feature aligned with the journal’s orientation toward building authors’ capacity and opportunities.

The journal recently accepted manuscripts for its fifth issue, which will be published in 2027. Submissions for the 2028 issue will open in Summer 2027.

“We have many fantastic and dedicated people to thank for the realization of our fourth issue,” the letter from the board says. “We owe an immense debt of gratitude to Dr. Jennie Weiner, our founding advisor, whose tireless dedication to this journal and to students has shaped everything we do. Dr. Weiner concludes her service with this edition, and we are deeply grateful for her leadership and the enduring lessons she has imparted to us as reviewers and researchers. We also extend our heartfelt thanks to Dr. Jason Irizarry, our dean, whose enthusiastic support from the journal’s inception has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to student research and development. … Finally, thank you to the authors of the pieces featured in this issue and all who submitted work. It goes without saying that this would be impossible without your contributions. We are immensely proud to feature your work in this issue.”

To learn more about the Neag School of Education Journal, visit education.uconn.edu/neag-journal.