AJER at 70: Looking Back, Looking Forward

Volume 70, Number 1 marks a significant milestone in the existence of the Alberta Journal of Educational Research (AJER)-its 70 th anniversary.During its 70-year history, AJER has faced and overcome challenges, has evolved, and has served as an outstanding vehicle for scholarly research dissemination.When the Alberta Journal of Educational Research came into being, "the vision for educational research in Canada was fresh and exciting" (Hersom, 1980, p. 272).As the oldest active educational journal in Canada and a journal that is not funded through membership dues in a professional/educational organization, AJER has proven its vitality, not just resilience, and has gained its rightful place in the international educational research scene.It is now attracting around 200 submissions a year, representing close to 500 researchers from 40 countries.It is with a distinct sense of honor and a responsibility to the educational research communities worldwide that we, the Editors of the Alberta Journal of Educational Research who have served in this role, celebrate the journal's 70 th anniversary.The current Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Anna Kirova invited all the past Editors whom she could reach to reflect on the development of the journal, as well as their respective roles in it.The five past Editors welcomed the opportunity to do so and submitted their written reflections, which are included in this Editorial.Based on the overall tone and content of the submitted reflections, it appears that we as editors all share Dr. Naomi Hersom's (1980) assessment of the journal's impact on the occasion of AJER's 25 th anniversary, and believe that it holds to this date: "While its editorial policies have developed and changed somewhat, the overall goal of presenting ideas that represent the best in all aspects of educational research has not" (p.263).We also believe that, collectively, we have made our (however modest) contributions to establishing AJER as "a sort of weathercock for directions in the developments taking place in educational research taking place in North America" (Hersom, 1980, p. 268), have continued the tradition of the journal's first 25 years of positioning itself as a place to publish "state of the art in Canadian research on teaching and teacher education" (Hersom, 1980, p. 168), and have expanded considerably its tradition to publish top quality research conducted in over 40 countries.One cannot help but feel a sense of appreciation and deep respect for Drs.Herbert T. Coutts' and George Murray Dunlop's vision for AJER's role in establishing the place of research as a core activity of the Faculty of Education, alongside teaching, in the mid-1950s.Put in the institutional