Editorial The last copy of the 125th year of publication of the main Slovene journal for the area of education, which fi rst used to be published under the name the Popotnik (the Traveller) and in the last 60 years as the Sodobna pedagogika (the Journal of Contemporary Pedagogy), provides an extraordinary variety of topi- cs, presenting the contents of present research endeavours in the area of edu- cation. This copy intentionally does not have a so-called central topic, following the idea of bilingual copies in order to represent achievements and situations in the area of pedagogics to local readers as well as to English speaking readers. Nevertheless, the articles in this copy can be divided into a few complexes whose common denominator remains the care for increasing the effi ciency and quality of work in educational institutions. The fi rst complex treats work in primary schools, especially the relations problems between school and parents. The text, treating the partnership between teachers and parents, reveals that the main motive for the cooperation is mostly children’s feelings at school and relations between children in the class, which indicates the existence of parents’ care and their sense of responsibility for edu- cational effi ciency of primary school. On the other hand, the data show also an increasing need for parents’ cooperation and help in pupils’ learning work. This demands a suitable qualifi cation for cooperation of parents as well as teachers, who can plan their work by including also parents’ cooperation. However, there is an open question what such work planning means to children whose parents are less educated. According to the research fi ndings, these parents feel less competent to help their children. This is the reason why the need for qualifying parents and teachers for a suitable cooperation and creation of conditions of school’s educational and learning effi ciency is even greater. Thus, the data from other national spaces are being proved in the Slovene pattern. According to these data, the appropriate parents’ inclusion provides concrete results also in the area of learning success. A suitable family environment remains the most si- gnifi cant supporter of the individual’s optimal development, to which we should pay more research and educational attention. The following article is also a part of the same empirical research, in which the woman author analyses how teachers and parents see each other. Based on the empirical data, she concludes that teachers and parents do not attribute suffi cient competence to each other, which is the condition of accepting each other as partners in their common endeavours. Since the research is about fi n- ding out the interviewees’ opinions, the actual (mis)trust between both groups can be considered only indirectly. Based on the teachers’ opinions whether pa- rents can be parents, we can indirectly conclude if there is the lack of trust between parents and teachers. Similarly, a lower degree of education does not tell us anything about the experience that less educated parents had with their teachers, when they were included into education. Nevertheless, we can agree 6 CONTEMPORARY PEDAGOGY 5/2008 with the woman author that mutual trust is a condition for a suitable coope- ration and that parents should be attributed a more important role in solving problems, which arise from common work, when educating children. The third published article is also connected to the described problems. The women authors research the role of kindergarten and family environment as a predictor of children’s speaking competence. This research also points at the extraordinary parents’ role, this time regarding children’s speech develop- ment. The women authors state that parents’ education and family environ- ment, together with sex and intelligence, are a signifi cant predictor of children’s speaking competence. Therefore, it is reconfi rmed that, the same as in the fi rst two articles, parents and family environment are of extreme importance for children’s development. The second complex of articles deals with the area of vocational and tech- nical education and training. It treats the study of this segment of the educa- tional system from two points of view: its contribution to the justice and social inclusion as well as legitimacy of education in connection to the processes of vocational socialisation. The group of authors illuminated activities and trends in the area of vocational and technical education and training in Slovenia. From the profusely documented analysis, it can be found out that in Slovenia as well as in other comparable countries, this segment of education is increasingly less attractive and that the registration index into the programs of vocational and technical education is decreasing. Even more worrying is the fi nding that those who fi nish the secondary vocational education, passing their vocational Matura show a great interest in further education. A lot of them actually do continue their education at the tertiary level. The system certainly enables such conti- nuation. Transitions from vocational direction into the general one are possible also after fi nished secondary vocational level, either so that vocational secon- dary school graduates pass the general Matura or by passing another additio- nal subject from the general Matura. However, they do not equal to grammar school graduates, but they are able to continue their education in the university programs, providing such a possibility. It is evident that educational currents are infl uenced by other non-school factors, mainly social reputation of vocations and pay policy, which clearly favour professions at the tertiary level. Since the problems are complex, the authors do offer several measures, which may lead to the change of currents and to the revalorisation, consequently increasing the attraction of vocational education. Between these factors, there is an outstan- ding suggestion for a bigger program fl exibility, which could be, according to the authors’ opinion, enabled by a unifi ed vocational school. The text, treating vocational education and the legitimacy of education in vocational education, is in the light of the previous article even more interesting, since it interferes with the question of the internationality of the socialization process in vocational education. It rejects the orientation where vocational edu- cation is in a way covered with substitutional expressions, such as vocational socialization or socialization (instead of educational) objectives. Certainly, such a change requires a deep refl ection on the aims of this education segment, espe- Editorial 7 cially social inclusion and on ethics and vocational values, which are specifi c for a particular vocational environment. Therefore, a constant attention is required to this socially curtailed population, included into vocational education. With planned educational work, it should not get even more marginal. It is by means of vocational education that this population is supposed to develop a suitable (vocational) identity and thus its own social promotion. The last complex of articles is, concerning contents, more varied. The fi rst article is of methodological nature, pointing at the importance of triangulation for ensuring the quality of research fi ndings of qualitative research. Since qua- litative research is increasingly included in researches of education in Slovenia and the trust in qualitative methodology is still little, due to frequent simplifi ca- tions in the frame of methodological approach, triangulation, treated in the arti- cle, represents the approach to the increasing trust, as well as a methodological guidance for the researchers, employing qualitative methodology. The next article deals with the terminological and consequently conceptual question of museum pedagogy, pointing out problems regarding this expression, which has been nevertheless in use for a long time in our country as well as in the international space. The article is especially interesting because it shows that semantic undefi ning cannot be solved by means of etymological analysis of employed words, but only by thoroughly defi ning the concept itself, in our case – the concept of museum pedagogy. From this point of view, it can be understood also as an article for an international discussion or for the conceptualisation of museum pedagogy. The last article in this copy researches authority, treating its role in the educational concept of public school. By means of the concepts of theoretical psychoanalysis, it studies the mechanisms of establishing authority, its role as well as its functions in establishing Ideal self. The article reveals that for the educational effi ciency of school, pupils have to be placed into the social net, based on clear rules, defi ned beforehand, which cannot be arbitrarily adapted. This can be reached only by mutual coordination and agreements, engaging all participants in the educational process. Although the copy, as we have already said, is not thematic, it is possible to identify the common section of the published texts. They all focus on the existing situation in education, illuminating it by means of a proper scientifi c discourse and solving conceptual dilemmas. Besides, they implement and ex- plain methodological approaches, which provide the refl exion of the existing pedagogical practice in national and international space. Dr Janko Mur{ak, Editor 8 CONTEMPORARY PEDAGOGY 5/2008