The BERA Annual Conference goes digital

The year 2020 will be remembered as one that brought many changes to both our personal and professional lives. It also gave us the opportunity to reflect on what is important to us: visits to our...

Why open educational resources are failing to widen access to education

Open educational resources (OERs) are learning, teaching and research materials in any format and medium that are freely available in the public domain. Current discussions about OERs are...

Not another Cinderella story: Reflections on a collaboration to tell and imagine past, present and future stories of FE

For just over five years a unique project has examined the situation of further education (FE), mainly in England but also elsewhere in the UK, Australia and Ireland. The FE sector in England...

Learning loss or learning disruption?

Alarm has been expressed about the likely impact of Covid-19 on children’s academic achievement with terms such as ‘closing the gap’, ‘learning loss’ and ‘catch up’ permeating...

Has there really been a decline in happiness among young people in the UK?

The Children’s Society published its most recent edition of The Good Childhood Report in August (Children’s Society, 2020). Concerningly, it reported that even before Covid-19 there had been a...

The BERA Blog: Highlights of 2020

BERA Blog end of year highlights

A warm and wintery ‘welcome’ to all our readers, wherever you may be. This time last year I wished all of you a seasonal ‘yo-ho-ho’, blissfully unaware of how 2020 would play out. Today,...

Exclusion and the strategic leadership role of special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs) in England: Planning for Covid-19 and future crises

Disproportionality (the overrepresentation of specific social groups) in school exclusion data is well documented (DfE, 2019). Similarly, time and funding pressures faced by special educational...

Invisible disabilities: Ableism in education

Education and higher education have always been associated with specific ways of working and presenteeism. Teachers or lecturers needed to be in the room to teach or to attend meetings and...

Exploring early years degrees and graduate employment outcomes

Degree-qualified practitioners contribute to the quality of early years education and improve children’s outcomes. However, little is known about the content and structure of early years...