English instrumental music teaching: A model for authentic learning

Covid-19, education and educational research

At the time of writing, UK schools are closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. It is not known when, or in what form, they will reopen; public examinations have been cancelled; and technology is...

Post Covid-19 – A ‘brave new world’?

Covid-19, education and educational research

Globally, the impact of Covid-19 has been truly unprecedented and unforeseen. In all sectors of society, in all nations, the almost immediate, total suspension of everything we know has left many...

The increasing need to educate children about their rights: An outcome of lockdown measures

Many children in the United Kingdom, and elsewhere in the world, have been away from their regular school and early year settings, spending lengthy periods of time at home since the beginning of...

This is not a one-year blip: If we have to have a national assessment system, it shouldn’t be this one

This is not a one-year blip: If we have to have a national assessment system, it shouldn’t be this one Although calls for root-and-branch reform of our national examinations systems aren’t...

Students’ anxiety about the allocations of grades for cancelled high-stakes public examinations

‘My main anxiety at the moment is how I am going to be graded.’

Activism, autonomy and identities: Stories from early childhood educators

In pre-Covid England, early childhood education and care (ECEC) was already in a state of uncertainty. A maelstrom of structural conditions and an onslaught of initiatives had manifested as...

Lost in translation: The translation of Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child into educational legislation

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) (UN, 1989) includes 54 articles outlining rights and freedoms for children. The UNCRC provides formal acknowledgement of the rights...

Decolonisation of the curriculum from the sidelines? Responsibility transfer and neo-nationalism

The tragic events in Minnesota with the death of George Floyd have given rise to mass waves of protest around the world, setting at the forefront of public debate the workings of racism,...

Agility, return and recovery: Our new Covid context for schooling and teacher education?

Covid-19, education and educational research

Previously on the BERA blog (Kidd, 2020a) I have drawn attention to the work of Glade Primary School, an east-London school in the borough of Redbridge, England, and their ‘agile’ adoption of...

Identifying the potential impacts of Covid-19 on school-based sexuality education

Covid-19, education and educational research

The ideas presented in this blog were developed in dialogue with a number of English sexuality education organizations, including acetUK, It Happens, Susie March, Think for Yourself, Teaching...

#BlackLivesMatter in education

The sickening death of African-American George Floyd by suffocation at the hands of a White-American policeman has justifiably fuelled the force of the #BlackLivesMatter movement across the world....

The rise of the flexible and remote teacher: A primary school’s response to the Covid-19 context in London

Covid-19, education and educational research

On Friday 29 May 2020, ITV ran a story on the London regional news about a primary school whose pupils were reported to be ‘traveling the world’ through the adoption of video conferencing (VC)...