Editorial: Action research: Research into action

Action research: Research into action

Lisa Pettifer, head of professional development in a large secondary school in England, proclaimed in her blog post Living with research in 2015 that, from a practitioner perspective, ‘…the...

The action research gardener: How doing action research restores my emotional energy

Action research: Research into action

A central question to my action research (AR) asks how a teacher-educator can improve her practice to support trainee-teacher learning during teaching practice (TP). My research was prompted by...

Meeting curriculum requirements while recognising the need for students to relate to texts

Action research: Research into action

In 2010, a number of sweeping educational reforms were announced – particularly in English – where the likes of Byron, Keats and Dickens would firmly be re-rooted and restored to their...

Action research: Research into action

A number of BERA events between 2020 and 2022 enabled researchers to come together from a range of different education settings (primary, secondary, tertiary and higher education). These events...

What schools want: Recruiting senior leaders in England

In an increasingly fragmented and competitive education system, recruiting the ‘best’ school leaders is based on fabricated notions of leadership. A recent job advert earned derision for being...

Spring 2023

Research Intelligence issue 154: Education: The State of the Discipline

Understanding girls’ experiences of being at risk of permanent exclusion: How do we get there?

This blog considers some of the issues highlighted by existing research on girls’ exclusion from schooling and the challenges of beginning research in this area. Although boys are three times...

Dropping off a cliff: What’s really behind the fall in trainee teacher recruitment?

Graduates are giving teaching the swerve in increasing numbers. The Department for Education (DfE) has announced that recruitment for Initial Teacher Training (ITT) courses at secondary level is...

Editorial: Spotlight on language and literacy

Spotlight on language and literacy

Findings from studies captured in this special issue make for compelling reading about the direction of language and literacy research in the UK and further afield. Ian Collen, from Queen’s...

Spotlight on language and literacy

This special issue of the BERA Blog places a spotlight on educational research in the field of language and literacy. Covering a range of topics from modern language learning to language as an...

School-level language policies: What are they and (why) do we need them?

Spotlight on language and literacy

Dimensions of language in schools Many educators will be familiar with the saying that ‘all teachers are language teachers’ and few would argue that language doesn’t play a crucial role in...

The change in science language as a result of transition from primary to secondary school

Spotlight on language and literacy

When students move from primary to secondary school, one of the numerous challenges that they encounter is language. The language of school academic activity is importantly different from the...