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The complex pressures facing primary and post-primary School Leaders in Ireland

In this blog post we examine how administrative burdens combine with emotional and cognitive demands to affect school leader wellbeing in Ireland. High levels of stress and attrition among...

Managing complex pupil needs: A key factor influencing teacher resilience

In this blog post we share insights from ‘Decentring the “resilient teacher”’, a project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). This project used a novel process of...

Navigating the future of Alberta’s teaching profession: Insights from teachers and school leaders

In this blog post I demonstrate how research data from the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) draw a picture of increasing teacher attrition in Alberta, Canada, and identify potential...

Filling the leaky bucket: Teacher workload and wellbeing in Tennessee

The United States is experiencing a shortage of teachers, and the issue is amplified among those who serve vulnerable student populations (see for example Brunsting et al., 2023). In response,...

‘Parents are clients and students are the product’: Secondary English teachers’ workload as moral injury

Teacher workload and its contribution to insufficient recruitment and retention is a prominent theme in recent research on teachers’ work (Heffernan et al., 2022; Stacey et al., 2024). In...

Teaching on the edge: Teacher mental health and workload pressures in Wales

The landscape of teaching in Wales has changed significantly post-Covid-19, with educators reporting increased workload pressures, rising Additional Learning Needs demands (Conn & Hutt, 2020),...

Editorial: Should I stay or should I go? International perspectives on workload intensification and teacher wellbeing

This special issue of the BERA Blog introduces research-informed articles addressing teachers’ work and wellbeing across seven national/regional education systems: Scotland; England; Wales;...

Should I stay or should I go? International perspectives on workload intensification and teacher wellbeing

This special issue of the BERA Blog introduces research-informed articles addressing teachers’ work and wellbeing across seven national/regional education systems: Scotland; England; Wales;...

Head, heart, hands and bay: Transforming education through place

This year's tenth anniversary of UK Children’s Mental Health week took the theme ‘Know Yourself, Grow Yourself’, focusing on resilience, confidence and wellbeing. Sharing this, the...

A tapestry of love and trust in ethnographic research with preschool children

Embarking on a PhD journey is often likened to navigating a sea of uncertainties and self-doubt (Woolston, 2021). However, my research on wellbeing with preschool children has been a...

We need a revolution in the primary curriculum for England, not an evolution

Curriculum: Theory, policy and practice

Like many headteachers in the state sector, I was excited in 2024 when the newly elected Labour government called for a curriculum and assessment review. Many of us in the primary phase (ages...

BERA celebrates 10 years of the BERA Blog

2025 marks 10 years of the BERA Blog, and we’re so proud of all that it has accomplished! Thank you to all those who have contributed to the Blog, whether as authors, editors, or readers. The...