The Language We Carry Inside
‘Everything can change, but not the language that we carry inside us, like a world more exclusive and final than one's mother's womb.’ Italo Calvino Why is it that...
Continue reading blog postBERA Blog
The BERA Blog was established in 2015 to provide research-informed content on key educational issues in an accessible manner.
Refine results
Evidence-based practice – some common misconceptions
Over the last 12 months I have been lucky enough to have the opportunity to read, reflect and write about evidence-based practice and education. The more and more I have read about the...
Continue reading blog post
Can social competence be taught to older children and young adults?
As a practitioner within FE I have observed a variety of different levels of learners where the interaction between them may not always be as I would expect. Some learners clearly display the...
Continue reading blog post
“What am I Doing Wrong?”: When Dark Funds of Knowledge Obstruct Culturally Responsive Instruction
The issue of effectively engaging linguistically and culturally diverse students is one that preoccupies teachers and researchers alike, resonating across rural, suburban, urban, mainstream and...
Continue reading blog postDrawing division
At a national and international level, research on very low attaining pupils of secondary age is rare compared to younger age groups, and while there has been increased interest in the past decade...
Continue reading blog post
Reading More Wisely
In 2014, ReadingWise invited us to carry out an independent study of its Computer-Based Literacy Programme for Accelerated Reading Acquisition. Following exploratory meetings, schools and adult...
Continue reading blog postLiteracy not just a skill: a critical lens and tool to expose and challenge symbolic violence and poverty
In the last two decades there has been an attention on literacy, principally among countries participating in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (Grek, 2010;...
Continue reading blog post
‘Tragedy of the commons’: how the government abandoned the pursuit of teacher quality
The ‘tragedy of the commons’ is a well-known tenet of public, and especially environmental policy. The ‘commons’ refers to a resource shared by many individuals who can use a portion of it...
Continue reading blog post
Humanity – a threat to the institution
Like many lecturers in higher education I weary of the techno-managed, audited and performance-reviewed life we lead. I can’t believe in it and it all seems so poor and, contrary to the...
Continue reading blog post