Journal of Education on the Margins Volume 1 Issue 1

The Journal of Education on the Margins is an interdisciplinary, peer‑reviewed publication dedicated to amplifying the voices, experiences, and practices that emerge at the edges of educational systems. The journal explores spaces where learners, educators, and communities navigate exclusion, inequality, and systemic barriers, while also generating powerful forms of connection, resilience, creativity, and transformation.

Each issue blends academic scholarship with community‑led research, featuring work on empathy in higher education, emotional intelligence in school leadership, adult literacy journeys, participatory action research with Travellers, and innovative education initiatives in prisons and marginalized communities. Bringing together university academics, community practitioners, and lived‑experience experts, the journal offers a rare meeting point between theory, practice, and grassroots knowledge.

The rationale for The Journal of Education on the Margins stems from a core belief: the periphery is not a place of deficit, but a place of insight. Educational innovation, relational practice, and equitable change often originate in communities and contexts that mainstream research overlooks.

The journal exists to:

1. Centre marginalized voices and lived experience

It responds to persistent gaps in educational research by foregrounding the perspectives of groups historically excluded from dominant narratives e.g. Travellers, early school leavers, incarcerated learners, adult literacy participants, and students navigating complex inequalities.

2. Foster empathy‑driven and relational approaches to education

Across its articles, the journal highlights empathy, vulnerability, belonging, and emotional literacy as structural tools for equity, not optional add‑ons. It argues that meaningful inclusion is created through relationships, continuity, and recognition.

3. Bridge academic research with community action

The journal intentionally pairs scholarly articles with community‑led participatory projects, positioning both as equally valuable sources of knowledge for shaping policy and practice. It provides a platform where rigorous academic inquiry meets grassroots expertise and advocacy.

4. Influence policy and challenge structural inequality

By documenting real‑world interventions, Traveller education reform, youth voice initiatives, prison/university partnerships, and community‑based transition supports, the journal offers concrete models for addressing entrenched educational inequities.

5. Reimagine what inclusive education can be

Ultimately, the journal aims to shift how we understand education: from a narrow academic enterprise to a relational, cultural, and community‑rooted process where empathy, identity, and inclusion are central.