Award

BERA Doctoral Thesis Award

Every year BERA recognises academic excellence and rigour in research by a Doctoral student. This underscores BERA’s commitment to championing educational research, and celebrating and recognise excellence in the education research community.

Eligibility Criteria

The applicant should be a fully paid up member of BERA at the time of nominations.
The institution at which the student submitted their dissertation should have confirmed the degree awarded by 31st December 2024; i.e. this award is awarded to education students who have completed their doctorate in the previous year (2024).

Prizes

£250
Complimentary registration at BERA Conference 2025

Application Details

Application for the award should consist of a submitted nomination via the ‘apply now’ button (above left)

Supporting documents that must be uploaded are:

1. A 1000 word extended abstract
2. The thesis
3. A supporting statement from your supervisor, second supervisor, examiner or other expert in the field outlining why they believe this dissertation meets the judging criteria below (500 words)
4. a link to your thesis hosted on a website such as google drive, dropbox, apple documents etc.

Please note:

When submitting a document through the upload function on the application page, pleasure ensure the following:

The file name of the document is in this format: APPLICANT LAST NAME, APPLICANT FIRST NAME, DOCUMENT TYPE.
documents not recieved in this format will be ineligible for consideration.

If you require this application in a different format for accessibility reasons, please contact membership@bera.ac.uk

Judging

Nominations will be scored by a BERA selection panel. The panel’s judgement will be framed by the following criteria:

Research quality appropriate to the nature and context of the work undertaken
Methodological Rigour and robust research design
Critical engagement with, and application of, appropriate field related literature
Effective and critical analysis of data
Findings that demonstrate a potentially significant contribution to the field
Clarity of extended abstract
Originality of research area and/or methodology

2025 Winner

Thesis: How does military life shape service children’s identity and school experiences?

Lucy Robinson, Dr

Postdoctoral Researcher at University of Oxford

Dr Lucy Robinson has recently completed her ESRC-funded DPhil at the Department of Education, University of Oxford. Her doctoral research involved working creatively with groups of service children to explore how service life shapes their...

2024 Winner

Thesis: The status and safety of teaching: A longitudinal study of why some young people in England become teachers, and why others do not

Emily Macleod, Dr

Honorary Senior Research Fellow/Postdoctoral Fellow at University College London/McGill University

I am a Postdoctoral Scholar at McGill University, Canada and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education & Society, where completed my PhD at in 2023. Within the context of national and international teacher shortages,...

2023 Winner

Thesis: Education encounters, hybrid identities and spectral traces: contesting the myths of Aston through the accounts of South Asian Muslim Women

Balwant Kaur, Dr

Assistant Professor for Race, Social Justice and Education at University of Birmingham

I am an Assistant Professor of Race, Social Justice and Education at the University of Birmingham. My research interests include: exploring the experiences of women in diasporic communities; culture and migration through a hauntological and...

2022 Winner

Thesis: New Faces and Changing Places: Discourse, identity and early career primary teachers in post-2010 Multi-Academy Trusts

Kathryn Spicksley, Dr

Research Fellow at University of Birmingham

Dr Kathryn Spicksley is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Birmingham. Her research focuses on teacher professional identity, with a specific interest in its relationship to teacher recruitment and retention. Prior to...

2021 Winner

Thesis: Imaginative travellers in-situ: A case study of Chinese students at a UK transnational Higher Education institution

Jingran Yu, Dr

Assistant Professor at Xiamen University

Jingran Yu won the BERA 2021 Doctoral Thesis Award for her thesis “Imaginative travellers in-situ: A case study of Chinese students at a UK transnational Higher Education institution“ You can read the abstract below: This thesis explores the...

2020 Winner

Thesis: Learner-Centred Pedagogy and its Implications for Pupils’ Schooling Experiences and Learning Outcomes: A Mixed-Methods Case Study in Tanzania

Nozomi Sakata, Dr

Assistant Professor at Hiroshima University

Nozomi Sakata is Assistant Professor in the Centre for the Study of International Cooperation in Education at Hiroshima University, Japan. In the field of Comparative and International Education, her research interests include educational policy...

2019 Winner

Yasamin Alkhansa, Dr

Research Associate at University of Sussex

Yasamin Alkhansa completed her PhD at the Center for International Education (CIE) at the University of Sussex, in 2019. Her thesis, was an ethnography of official history as lived and enacted in schools in Iran which won BERA's Doctoral Thesis...

2018 Winner

Arunthathi Mahendran, Professor

Professor of Education, Consultant Surgeon at Queen Mary University of London

Arunthathi Mahendran was awarded the 2018 BERA Doctoral Thesis Award for her thesis Surgeon Education, Engaging with the Immanence of Events Of Practice: An Exploration of the Ontological and Ethical Dimensions of Surgical Training and...

2017 Winner

Sophina Choudry, Dr

Senior Lecturer at The University of Manchester

Sophina Choudry was awarded the 2017 BERA Doctoral Thesis Award for her thesis: Mathematics Capital in the Classroom and Wider Educational Field: Intersections of Ethnicity, Gender and Social Class. The abstract for her thesis is below: “The...