Output details

Educational publishing: ‘graphosphere’, ‘videosphere’ or ‘public sphere’?

This article focuses on the state of the educational book publishing industry within the UK in the aftermath of the 2008 global recession. Following two previously published surveys in 1999 and 2005 respectively, it reports on a third survey of senior editorial personnel located across the major educational publishing houses. The analysis – grounded in Debray’s (2007) socio-historical analysis of technologically driven cultural transmission – identifies some of the key issues relating to the ways in which and the extent to which the educational book publishing industry is shaping the professional and public debate on education. It thereby contributes to our understanding of the social and political construction of knowledge and, more specifically, to the role of the educational publishing industry in that construction. The originality of the research is that for it was the first to conduct such research on the topic over a decade.The significance of this output lies in its presentation of insider accounts of educational publishing and its analysis of these accounts in the light of a global recession, which at the time the study was conducted was beginning to impact on the educational publishing industry. The evidence presented in the central section of the article provides insights into a relatively undocumented area of educational practice and builds on the evidence base established by the two previously published surveys.All three co-authors contributed to each phase of the study from the initial planning phase through the data collection and analysis phase to the final writing up. Although this researcher was not the lead author, his contribution was significant in helping to shape the focus of the study, the framework of analysis, the research design, and the structure of the final report.