Skip to content

BERA Conference 2023

12 September 2023 to 14 September 2023Aston University/ Conference Aston

Welcome to the BERA Annual Conference 2023

The programme is now live online. We have a fantastic array of presentations! The mobile app will soon be launched, which will allow you to favourite your sessions, build your programme and communicate with other delegates.

BERA as an organisation is keen to support attendance at the conference and has already supported delegate attendance with over £25,000 in bursaries.

BERA is committed to making changes to conference organisation based on comments from delegates. In response to comments from delegates at the 2022 conference in Liverpool, BERA will be making a number of changes including the conference no longer ending with a parallel paper session but instead with a range of BERA organised plenary sessions focusing on current issues within education. We will also include more e-poster opportunities alongside some traditional posters. 

Finally, we will host a formal Gala dinner as our social event at the 2023 conference. It will include a welcome drink on arrival and 3 course meal. There will be a live band for dancing but also a separate quiet area where attendees can continue conversations with their after-dinner coffee. An event not to be missed!

We look forward to seeing you in Birmingham in 2023.

Professor Mhairi C Beaton
Chair of BERA’s Conference and Events Committee

Key dates

31 January 2023

Abstract submission deadline

27 February 2023

Bursary application deadline

Why attend?

For educational researchers the BERA Annual Conference is an important date in their professional year. It provides the opportunity to:

  • network with existing colleagues
  • support new colleagues at the start of their careers
  • establish the beginnings of new collaborations
  • exchange ideas with like-minded colleagues; and sometimes more profitably, with non-like-minded colleagues
  • make new links with potential publishers or funders
  • learn about research outside your own area and investigate possible connections
  • indulge in discussions of ‘blue sky’ research that reminds you why you are a researcher

Seasoned BERA delegates could probably add several more reasons of their own as to why they return but for most it is about being part of a community of researchers. A community that is dynamic and changes over time; not just in terms of its members but in the way it does things. Participating in a vibrant conference is one way of making sure that you contribute to that change.

Conference and Events Committee

Profile picture of Mhairi Beaton
Mhairi Beaton, Professor

Professor at Leeds Beckett University

Mhairi Beaton is Reader at the Carnegie School of Education, Leeds Beckett University. After completing a Bachelor of Education at University of Edinburgh, Mhairi worked as a primary school teacher in Highland Region in the north of Scotland....

Profile picture of Richard Race
Richard Race, Dr

Visiting Professor of Education at Sapienza University, Rome, Italy

Dr. Richard Race is Visiting Professor in Education at Sapienza University, Rome, Italy. The third edition of his monograph, Multiculturalism and Education will be published with the Open University Press in March 2024. Richard is also editor of...

Profile picture of Megan Crawford
Megan Crawford, Professor

Professor Centre for Global Learning at Coventry University

Megan Crawford has significant experience in HE as a leader and academic at a senior level, and her work is keenly focused on leadership and the relationships between research and practice in schools. Megan has worked in schools, and at various...

Profile picture of Charlotte Vidal-Hall
Charlotte Vidal-Hall, Dr

Research lead at N/A

Charlotte Vidal-Hall is a research lead working in an education policy environment where she has led research in to reading in secondary schools, school governance and behaviour in schools. Charlotte was an early years and primary teacher for 15...

Profile picture of James Reid
James Reid, Dr

Reader in Education at University of Huddersfield

Jim Reid is based in the Dept. of Community and International Education at the University of Huddersfield. He is a member of the Huddersfield Centre for Research in Education and Society, a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of the...

Profile picture of Yuwei Xu
Yuwei Xu, Dr

Associate Professor at University of Nottingham

Dr Yuwei Xu is an Associate Professor in Early Childhood Education at the University of Nottingham. Previously he has held academic positions at University College London (UCL) and the University of Portsmouth. With a PhD in gender and early...

Profile picture of Aimee Quickfall
Aimee Quickfall, Dr

Head of School - Teacher Education at Leeds Trinity University

Aimee is Head of the School of Teacher Education at Leeds Trinity University, one of the BERA SIG leads for Mental Health and Wellbeing, and a member of the BERA Conference Committee. Her research interests are well-being and workload in...

Profile picture of Ian Potter
Ian Potter, Mr

N/A

Ian Potter is the Chief Executive of the Gosport and Fareham Multi-Academy Trust. The GFM is the first local Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) in Hampshire, United Kingdom. Prior to its formation in 2017, he was the Headteacher of Bay House School during...

Profile picture of Meera Chudasama
Meera Chudasama, Mrs

Teacher and Research Lead at Oakgrove Secondary School

Meera Chudasama is passionate about educational research; in particular making educational research accessible and digestible for those who work in schools. Alongside being a teacher, Meera feels most at home when she is supporting teachers, and...

Profile picture of Chris Midgley
Chris Midgley, Mr

Senior Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University

Chris Midgley wears three 'educational' hats that offer a unique perspective of HE and PCET education: he is a Senior Lecturer in Leadership at Manchester Metropolitan University, working on undergraduate and postgraduate leadership programmes...