2025 marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Organization of Educational Historians (OEH). OEH began as the Midwestern History of Education Society with the mission of providing a space for scholars, faculty, graduate students, educators, and historians to produce, share, and disseminate academic research about trends, issues, and ideas about the history of education, broadly conceived. Since 1965,  OEH has been a vibrant community of scholars in the United States and around the world that gathers annually for our conference and workshops throughout the year, as well as engaging in the peer review process of publishing history of education history. 
 
1965 is a monumental year in educational history in the United States. The passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act put education in the forefront of civil rights legislation and reform as part of President Johnson's War on Poverty. This law was a response not only to expanding the provisions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and but also to Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Additionally, the escalation of the Vietnam War caused widespread protests at schools and universities across the globe. As a result, the organizations such as the OEH grew to serve the need to conduct critical research not only about history of education, but how this research can serve the greater good for historians, students, and educational stakeholders around the world. 
 
There have been numerous events since 1965 that have impacted the trajectory of the purpose of history of education research. Whether scholars are studying historical pasts from centuries or a few years ago, history of education research serves a vital purpose in the academy and pedagogic circles to support educators, scholars, students, and the public to glean lessons about the past in order to make positive, forward facing decisions in the present and future. Historians know that change over time is one of the consistent themes to historical inquiry and research. As a result, OEH is committed to adapting to changing times in order to best serve the needs of our membership and society at large. In order to share and keep the spirit of the mission of OEH alive for the next 60 years, we encourage our membership and new members to submit research snapshots, conceptual essays, reflections, pedagogical methods, and book and media reviews  to our new blog!   

• ​Research Snapshots: an "elevator pitch" about an empirical research study that includes discussion of the purpose of study and research question, theoretical framework, methods, major findings, implications for future studies. 

• Conceptual Essays: a scholarly analysis or discussion about trends, issues, methods, theories, historiographies, critiques, and ideas pertaining to history of education research. 

• Reflections: personal narratives, self-studies or auto-ethnographies, memories of OEH, and experiences in the field of educational history. 

• Pedagogical Methods: action research about curricular design, instructional planning, and teaching and learning educational history in K-12 and higher education spaces. 

• Book and Media Reviews: scholarly analyses of new research, technologies, and media that have an impact on the field of educational history. 

 
Submissions should be 500-700 words with references and in-text citations formatted in Chicago author-date style.  Please email submissions with a separate title page with author information to oehmembershipcoordinator@gmail.com. All submissions will undergo double-blind peer review. Authors will receive a response in 4-6 weeks with a decision of "accept," "accept with minor revisions," "resubmit with major revisions," or  "reject."  

OEH is a community dedicated to research, teaching, mentorship, and idea-making about the history of education. We honor our organization's founding by continuing this work with this new publication space as a way to meet the needs of our membership, to grow our community, and continue looking forward to how history of education research can support progress towards a more equitable and peaceful future. We look forward to your submissions and coming to our upcoming events! Please follow us on social media for updates and news! 

By Katherine Perrotta, OEH President, Mercer University Tift College of Education