By: Josiah Beharry, Graduate Student Researcher, Center for Humanities, University of California Merced

The Journal of Teaching and Learning (JTL) is an active intellectual meeting ground: one animated by the belief that teaching and learning are not merely technical practices, but deeply social, political, and human endeavors that all people are a part of, in and beyond the classroom. Positioned as an international, peer reviewed education journal, JTL publishes scholarship that spans both K–12 and higher education, with an explicit orientation toward critical perspectives and the demands of contemporary education. Questions of democracy, sustainability, inclusion and exclusion, anti-oppressive pedagogy, and learning through crisis are not peripheral themes; they function as structuring concerns that shape the journal’s core identity.

In practice, this orientation produces a journal that is deliberately expansive. The range of articles moves across interventions, teacher development, educational leadership, policy analysis, inclusive education, and technology. Recent issues reveal a particularly strong presence of systematic reviews, meta-analyses, empirical quantitative research and qualitative investigations. At the same time, the journal maintains space for work that engages arts-based, performative, and non-traditional methodologies, a recognition that educational inquiry often exceeds singular epistemological frames.

JTL’s most compelling feature, however, may be its accessibility. Published in an open-access format with no article processing charges, the journal removes one of the most persistent barriers in academic publishing: cost. This model subtly but powerfully reshapes the journal’s audience. Research published in JTL is not restricted to those with institutional subscriptions, but is instead available to educators, practitioners, and scholars whose professional lives are directly implicated by the questions the journal explores. Submissions are managed through an OJS platform supported by clear templates and formatting expectations, offering contributors a submission process that is structured without being opaque.

JTL states it has a, “double-blind peer review process,” typically involving two to three reviewers, preserving scholarly credibility while sustaining methodological plurality. Sections such as Dialogue & Commentary, which are editor-reviewed rather than peer-reviewed, offer an additional layer of intellectual flexibility. Across the journal, the writing exhibits a recognizable structural coherence. Articles generally adhere to APA style and favor clear organizational frameworks marked by headings and subheadings. Introductions tend to perform an orienting function: they frame the educational problem, situate the research within relevant conversations, articulate the gap, and move toward purpose or argument with notable directness.

The journal’s distinct feature is its wide-ranging scope, which creates a complex dynamic. A typical issue showcases a variety of content, including subjects like mobile learning adoption, inclusive curriculum design, theatre pedagogy, mathematics education meta-analyses, and policy critiques regarding digital classroom risks. This intellectual breadth can be viewed in two contrasting ways. On one hand, scholars who naturally work across disciplines—particularly those focused on equity, innovative teaching methods, and methodology—may find the journal’s inclusive nature to be an ideal publishing platform. On the other hand, researchers seeking a highly specialized disciplinary dialogue may perceive the experience as more akin to publishing in a lively, public setting rather than a focused, theoretical niche. Consequently, the journal’s expansiveness serves as both its fundamental strength and its necessary trade-off.

Importantly, the journal’s evolving editorial direction reflects a distinctly progressive sensibility. This is especially visible in its recent call for special issue proposals on “Joy-Centered Pedagogy,” which signals not merely a thematic preference but a broader epistemological and pedagogical stance. Framed against the backdrop of environmental crisis, political polarization, technological disruption, and rising student disengagement, the call positions joy not as sentimentality but as a serious site of inquiry. The framing is telling joy is understood as something that coexists with difficulty rather than denies it, functioning as a renewable pedagogical resource rather than an affective luxury. In doing so, JTL continues to articulate a vision of educational scholarship that remains attentive to human experience, contemporary pressures, and the lived realities of teaching and learning.

Pragmatically speaking, manuscripts are expected to remain under 10,000 words (excluding references and title materials), with most articles falling within a readable 4,000 to 8,000 word range. Submissions follow APA 7 formatting using journal templates, contributing to a consistent stylistic and structural presentation across issues. These parameters reflect the journal’s underlying editorial philosophy: scholarship should be rigorous, but also readable; methodologically grounded, yet broadly accessible.

JTL‘s fundamental mission is to be a journal for scholars and educators who see teaching and learning as central to intellectual, social, and ethical impact. It offers a publication space where accessibility to a broader audience is widened by contemporary relevance, a wide range of methodologies.

This is one in a series of five essays reviewing public humanities journals. This series was inspired by Wendy Belcher’s website Reviews of Peer-Reviewed Journals in the Humanities and Social Sciences