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BERA Educational Research Book of the Year

Closes 22 Jul 2025

This award celebrates the publication of educational research and is awarded to a scholarly book on education deemed to be high quality, engaging and innovative.

Challenges for climate change and sustainability education in England: Reflections on teachers’ practices and priorities for policymakers

Climate Change and Sustainability Education (CCSE), including school-based education, is widely understood as a vital response to the triple environmental crises of climate change, biodiversity...

The politics of handwriting: What is the purpose of prescriptive handwriting lessons in 2024?

How often do you handwrite and for what purpose? Perhaps you’ll write a birthday card, notes or a shopping list. No matter the context, is there a need for handwriting to be perfect? In English...

The fallacy of pre-submission commentary in university assessment: Let’s move to encouraging independence among our students

A scenario Imagine this: You, a university lecturer, are invigilating an exam. Students are focused on their question papers, scribbling away. With a little time left, a hand is raised. ‘Would...

Beyond employability: Rethinking the purpose of higher education

Higher education has traditionally been regarded as a path to stable employment (OECD, 2021). While this is still true for some countries, for others, economic changes and labour market saturation...

Potential pathways towards an integrated tertiary education system in England

This BERA Blog special issue examines possible futures for tertiary education in England and the challenges that are faced by policymakers, institutional leaders, educators and researchers in...

How a tertiary education system could transform access and progression: Learners need diverse routes, not just the high jump

The Labour Party is in government again and education underpins its opportunity mission. Policy appears to be focused on curriculum, assessment and inspection reform in schools (see DfE, 2024;...

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...

Curriculum making: A brief history and future directions

Curriculum: Theory, policy and practice10 years of the BERA Blog

The term ‘curriculum making’ is becoming increasingly common in educational policy and practice. It is a concept with a long tradition in curriculum studies, going back to the foundational...

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...

Evolution or business as usual? The interim report for England’s national curriculum review

Curriculum: Theory, policy and practice

The election of a Labour government in the UK in July 2024 heralded optimism that some serious problems with England’s national curriculum and assessment system, evident since 2014, would...

REF 2029: Invitation for contributions to the BERA Blog

Demystifying and exploring the Research Excellence Framework 2029