Competing, complementary and missing discourses of social justice in early childhood education and care in England

Competing discourses in early childhood education and care

Earlier this year the University of Manchester’s Institute of Education hosted the first of four events to support BERA’s research commission into competing discourses in early childhood...

Money is not the solution to the teacher shortage – or is it?

In England, less affluent areas have had greater difficulties in attracting qualified teachers than many other parts of the country. In coastal rural areas, which can be highly deprived, 7 per...

BERA Bites, issue 4: Reimagining a curriculum for teacher knowledge

The BERA Bites series presents selected articles from the BERA Blog on key topics in education, presented in an easily printable and digestible format to serve as teaching and learning...

Is pupil premium funding the answer to a worldwide problem?

Worldwide, socioeconomically disadvantaged students have lower average attainment outcomes at school, and poorer opportunities once they have left school. In England, poorer pupils are also...

What is ‘variation’ in early years mathematics?

As we near the end of our year-long project into what effects five- and six-year-olds’ ability to count-on when adding, here we reflect upon our journey. What led us to this topic was the recent...

Personal, social, health and economics education in initial teacher education : Why bother?

With the recent changes to legislation in relationship education and health education being announced as statutory within primary schools in England from September 2020 (Children and Social Work...

Mental health and wellbeing among trainee teachers

There is growing concern regarding the mental health and wellbeing of teachers in the UK. The charity Education Support Partnership recently published the Teacher Wellbeing Index 2018, which found...

What are the drivers to inspire more girls to study computer science?

As our 21st century society evolves, computer science (CS) proves fundamental (Cotteleer & Sniderman, 2018) to our global communities’ economic growth, national security, sustainability and...

Children and young people’s mental health: The role of schools

The World Health Organisation (2014) defines mental health as a state of wellbeing in which every individual is able to achieve their own potential and participate in daily life. One in 10...

BERA Research Commission 2019/2020 – Competing Discourses of Early Childhood Education and Care

The first BERA Research Commission was Competing Discourses of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC): Tensions, Impacts and Democratic Alternatives across the UK’s four jurisdictions, led by...

The impact of the prevent duty on schools: What does the evidence tell us?

The UK government has become influential in the field of countering violent extremism (CVE), and Kundnani and Hayes (2018) document how its legislation and policy framework has been exported...

Primary Assessment

A new report from an expert panel convened by BERA sets out the case against the government’s proposal to use a baseline assessment test of pupils in reception to hold schools in England to...