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BERA Announces the 2024 Academic Citizen of the Year

The BERA Academic Citizen of the Year is an award intended to recognise a colleague working in educational research who has made a significant contribution to the discipline as a whole and the...

Have Your Say: BERA Member Survey 2024

BERA is striving to continuously improve our services and better support our community of educational researchers. To help achieve this, we are launching the 2024 Member Survey, and we want to...

Learning apart: An introduction to the Northern Ireland education system

The education system in Northern Ireland has many strengths. Teaching is valued as a career and the profession is generally held in high esteem in the community. Teacher education has remained...

Journeys beyond the divide: duplication, sustainability and choice in Northern Ireland’s education system

In an old Irish joke, a ‘city-slicker’ lost in the countryside asking for directions is advised, ‘If I were you, I wouldn’t start from here.’ This mirrors the complicated tale of the...

Religion and education in Northern Ireland

Denominational Christianity is woven into the fabric of education in Northern Ireland (NI). Catholic, Presbyterian, Anglican and Methodist Churches, all Christian, are embedded in the framework...

Assessment at 11? Questioning the impact of academic selection in Northern Ireland

Imagine undergoing a high stakes education assessment at the age of 11, and that result dictating many of the options available to you for the rest of your life. The detrimental impact of academic...

Editorial – Unpacking the complexities and challenges of education in Northern Ireland: stimulating debate with Ulster University’s Transforming Education project

Curriculum: Theory, policy and practice

The rationale for how education operates is often contentious. There are varying views about academic selection, politicians disparage some degrees while lauding others, private schools’...

Citizenship education in Northern Ireland: an opportunity for transformation squandered?

The Independent Review of Education in Northern Ireland asserts that ‘education is the greatest investment any society makes in its own future’, bringing ‘societal benefits’ (Independent...

Transforming education, one paper at a time

There is a tendency to become habituated to our surroundings – we stop noticing features of the world around us. This has happened in Northern Ireland with regards to our divided social...

Transforming education in Northern Ireland: foregrounding the best interests of the child

This blog post is a little different. Using my background as an advocate for children, I reflect on what they require from an education system that is so often not designed to serve their needs....

Unpacking the complexities and challenges of education in Northern Ireland

Stimulating debate with Ulster University’s Transforming Education project

Matthew Milliken

Dr Matthew Milliken was a research assistant in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences at Ulster University, and is now an independent researcher. He is a former youth worker with a...