Objective knowledge framed by formal theory has long enjoyed pride of place in academic publications. Here the authority of text is privileged over the au­thority of lived experience. Other types of knowledge are excluded from writ­ten discourse because they are seen as inappropriate or lacking in academic rigour. Thus, formal academic writing often seems removed from the real world. In the field of education this separation ultimately silences the rich voices and ideas of teachers and students whose experiential and theoretical reflections should be valued as key contributions to educational discourse. 
The aim of this issue of the IOE Publication Series, Voices from the Field was to provide a space for educators to share their experiential and reflective knowledge of the real world of education. We wanted to hear the Voices of those being written about and acknowledge that they had something signifi­cant to say. We hoped too that the space provided would facilitate critical re­flection about truly meaningful ways to use such knowledge to improve the practice of education.