In this editorial, we focus on the unsuspecting challenge that many prospective authors encounter when writing manuscripts for this journal–that of clearly situating their manuscript as relevant and connected to a significant and compelling shared problem of the practice of mathematics teacher educators. In our previous editorial (Crespo & Bieda, 2017), we introduced a writing tool that organizes and makes visible all five review criteria for this journal into a writing template (reproduced here in Figure 1). This tool is meant to help prospective authors foreground the criteria as they conceive, outline, draft, review, edit, and revise their manuscripts. As prospective authors have begun to try this tool and share their outlined manuscripts with us, the challenge of articulating a shared problem of practice in MTE manuscripts has become more evident.
Sandra Crespo, MTE Editor, 620 Farm Lane, Erickson Hall 362, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1034. crespo@msu.edu