Search

Curriculum, Assessment and Pedagogy SIG Convenor Vacancy

Closes 27 Aug 2025

The BERA Curriculum, Assessment and Pedagogy SIG has an opening for a convenor. SIG AIM: To encourage and support research and other scholarly activity in the inter-related areas of curriculum,...

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.

The Seven ‘C’s of Why: Youth workers’ questions about digital practice

In this blog post I reflect on a collaborative research project that explored youth workers’ knowledge, skills and attitudes towards digital practice. Youth work in the UK is a profession guided...

A new national curriculum: Better learning principles and practices

The new UK Labour government, elected in 2024, almost immediately commissioned a Curriculum and Assessment Review, with the intention of developing a broader, cutting-edge curriculum in England...

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...