JITE v33n4 - From the Editor - Passing the Torch

Passing the Torch

With this issue I complete my term as Editor of the Journal of Industrial Teacher Education . It is time to close the book on this chapter of professional growth and reflect on my experiences of the past two years. As I write this final "From the Editor," I sense a weak symbolic connection with the runners who are carrying the Olympic torch across the United States in preparation for the opening ceremonies this summer in Atlanta. As with the torch run, the editorial responsibilities of the Journal are passed from editor to editor. It is the responsibility of the Editor to ensure that the flame remains lit and that the quality of the Journal is maintained. Each Editor also makes a number of changes that become part of the Journal's history. I hope that the historical record of my term will recognize the many changes that have been made in the operation of the Journal over the past two years. Although these changes have not affected the outward appearance of the Journal, they have directly impacted the efficiency of the operation. For example, we have taken advantage of the Internet and e-mail to facilitate more efficient communications among the Editorial Board, the referees, and the authors. We have also instituted an automated manuscript review form on the World-Wide-Web that streamlines the review process and shortens the time it takes for a manuscript to be reviewed and eliminates printing and mailing responses to the editor. Possibly the most exciting example of our efforts to move the Journal into the electronic age is the establishment of the electronic JITE on the Web. As I pass the editorial torch to the next Editor, Rodney Custer, I am confident that he will continue to maintain the long standing tradition of quality and establish his own legacy.

As I look back on my term as Editor, I realize, more than ever, that the quality of a Journal depends on the quality of the people who serve on the Editorial Board and who contribute their time as referees in the blind review process. The Editorial Board members who complete their terms with this issue include Associate Editor Rodney Custer, Assistant Editor Brian McAlister, Circulation Manager Charles Linnell, and Style Editor Sarah Duncan. The field is indebted to these fine professionals for their contributions to the Journal . Recognition for exemplary service to the Journal also goes to Jeffrey Flesher, Reynaldo Martinez, and Steven Petrina, who will continue as Assistant Editors for Volume 34. Although a mere acknowledgment is hardly sufficient, I recognize the contributions of the many Journal referees in the Bits and Pieces section at the end of this issue. Their insightful and scholarly feedback regarding the quality and substance of the manuscripts they reviewed made my work as Editor feasible.

I thank all the NAITTE officers, the Journal Editorial Board, and the referees, for the assistance they have provided and for the opportunity to serve as Editor of the Journal of Industrial Teacher Education . It has truly been a worthwhile experience.

In This Issue

Four featured articles are included in this issue. The first article, by John Pannabecker, provides an historical account of Diderot and Rousseau's contributions to technological education. Pannabecker compares their philosophical positions and describes their friendship as it dissolved over the years. The second article, by Chao and Dugger, presents a total quality management implementation model for instructional supervision. Their model was created based on a literature review, a Delphi study, and an attitude survey and focused on the quality of instruction in community college vocational technical programs. The third article, by Anu Gokhale, examines the impact of a commercially available software simulation package on electronics instruction. She discusses the advantages of simulations and concludes that this type of instruction has a positive effect on students' performance on thinking tasks. In the final article, Dan Brown looks at the types of information and the processes used by trainers and managers to attribute causes to various events in the organization. Brown concludes that technical training programs need to place greater emphasis on personal interaction and group decision making skills so that trainers can be more influential when managers make causal attributions about the impact of training.

The At Issue section contains an essay by Richard Lakes, in which he looks at the recent movement toward a "new vocationalism" and offers some ideas that can improve job accessibility for inner-city youth. Lakes contends that small-scale entrepreneurialism and entrepreneurship training can lead to economic development. The Comments section contains an essay by Sarah Duncan about the publication process. Duncan has served the Journal for two years as Style Editor and has accumulated a wealth of experience and insight regarding the publication process. The ideas she shares in this Comments section should help both experienced and inexperienced authors increase their chances of having a manuscript accepted for publication. Under Review includes two software reviews. In the first, Ray Richardson reviews Interactive Image Technologies' Electronic Workbench simulation software package. Richard Satchwell reviews The Ethnograph , Qualis Research Associates' tool for analyzing qualitative data. Bits and Pieces contains a complete bibliographic index for Volume 33 of the Journal and an acknowledgment of the exemplary service provided by the reviewers of the manuscripts that were submitted to the Journal . In addition, the usual items related to submitting manuscripts to the Journal , becoming a NAITTE member, and ordering various NAITTE publications are included at the end of this issue.

SDJ

Reference Citation: Johnson, S. D. (1996). Passing the torch. Journal of Industrial Teacher Education , 33(4), 3-5.

by Zulfia Imtiaz