Design research: A ‘tomorrow’ approach that needs consideration ‘today’?

Design research (or design-based research) is a methodological framework that focuses on the ‘tomorrow’; that is, the design of education as it could or should be (Bakker, 2018). Informed by a...

2023 BERA School Research Award

BERA is pleased to announce our new award aimed at encouraging the development of research skills in the curriculum of secondary schools.  The BERA School Research Award aims to promote the value...

If maths anxiety could talk: What do maths-anxious ex-pupils want to say to the teaching profession?

Having recently completed a small exploratory study (124 respondents) of the way that maths-anxious undergraduates in the UK make sense of their maths anxiety (MA), I was prompted to consider: had...

Diversifying our curriculum: Rediscovering the power of our narrative voices

BCF Curriculum Investigation Grant Research Reports

Funded by the 2021–2022 British Curriculum Forum Curriculum Investigation Grant, this project aimed to investigate the degree to which a secondary school in England included a multitude of...

Can a whole-school curriculum focus on celebrating diversity reduce the volume of racist incidents?

BCF Curriculum Investigation Grant Research Reports

This project, funded by the 2021–2022 British Curriculum Forum (BCF) Curriculum Investigation Grant, involved finding ways to celebrate diversity within a Welsh school and its school curriculum....

Sounding right, sounding white: Interrogating language, race and curriculum in secondary education

BCF Curriculum Investigation Grant Research Reports

Funded by the British Curriculum Forum Curriculum Investigation Grant 2021–2022, this project explored the impact of offering lower KS3 pupils a curriculum that contrasted significantly with the...

An empirical evaluation of ‘big questions’ as an organisational framework for interdisciplinary social studies in a Scottish high school

BCF Curriculum Investigation Grant Research Reports

This research project assessed the impact on pupils and staff of a school-designed integrated social studies curriculum, aiming to apply insights from Big History and Big Questions to offer pupils...

Who is your teacher and why does it matter? The lived experiences of history and citizenship teachers in Northern Ireland

Education research: Northern Ireland

In Northern Ireland, as in other divided and conflict-affected societies, the contribution of education and, particularly, the school curriculum in aiding social cohesion has long been recognised...

Decolonising curriculum knowledge: A scholarly journey from the local, to national and international perspectives

I began decolonising curriculum knowledge 25 years ago. The tragic murder of the Black British teenager Stephen Lawrence in 1993 was the catalyst of my activism in education, research, teaching...

A ‘race and education’ film club: New reflexive possibilities

In England, as with so many settings around the globe, researchers have long-debated how concepts of racism interplay with education, whether at the systemic or classroom level (see for example...

Radical imagination: Enacting anti-racist practice and decolonial praxis in initial teacher education in England

Decolonising the curriculum is a complex, although not elusive phenomenon in initial teacher education (ITE). It is, however, to be actively and persistently pursued in order to enable anti-racist...

Science communication: Creativity and empathy

My speaking invitations are normally limited to flies or dementia – it was therefore a refreshing change for me to be asked to talk about my teaching passion of science communication. It was a...