Education and social mobility
Over the past two decades the UK state education system has faced increasing pressure to raise academic standards and improve outcomes for all young people, regardless of their social background...
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Assessment in Schools: What is to be done?
I have been busier than I expected in the time since I stepped down from being BERA’s President and Vice President. Like a number of other BERA colleagues I have responded to invitations to talk...
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Beyond mentoring; peer coaching by and for teachers. Can it live up to its promise?
Creating opportunities for individual teachers to work together for professional development is a common ambition in schools in England. Mentoring forms a critical learning resource for both...
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Challenges for Higher Education
Last year BERA celebrated its 40th Anniversary in London, and this year’s annual conference in Belfast promises to be stimulating and invigorating with an emphasis on networking, exchanging...
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On not knowing anything about education
In this blog I want to examine why education is both tedious and yet fascinating as a subject. Where does boredom about education come from? I know it creeps up and silently closes one’s...
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Cui bono? The myth of the closing gap and the need for radical reconceptualisation of early childhood research
Services for young children and their families have held a prominent place on international policy agendas for decades and have seen remarkable transformations of the underlying concept of what...
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Making a difference through music
Where music making takes place, it often co-exists in a world that is characterised by poverty, disease, and child mortality (cf Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; UN Human Development Index). Human...
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Taking Risks in Education – reflections on English Schools
Current educational change in England is based on the rationale that schools may be continually improved in ways that facilitate competitive advantage on a world stage. This rationale enables...
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Education and the 2015 election
Education has fallen down the political agenda. It deserves more attention.
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