SEND Crisis: A call to arms against austerity

The House of Commons Education Select Committee recently published the findings from their inquiry into special educational needs and disability (SEND). The report describes a serious failure in...

Multi-academy trusts in England: What drives them to grow?

Multi-academy trusts (MATs) are now a common feature of the English educational landscape. Yet numerous high-profile failures indicate that they present a substantial challenge in terms of...

Birmingham: A land of Trojan horses?

Birmingham has had many ethnic communities settling among its population, leading to the city becoming ‘superdiverse’ (Rex & Moore, 1967; Vertovec, 2007). British Pakistani children are close...

ITE content and the work of the content advisory group

Identifying components of initial teacher education (ITE) that all accredited ITE providers in England will have to adopt was never going to be an easy task. On the one hand, ITE providers must...

Making words stick is primary practice

The Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) is responsible for inspecting the quality of education in a range of schools and settings in England, and for reporting its findings to government....

Tackling educational inequality

The questions, ‘What does the empirical evidence tell us about the achievement gap?’ and ‘What is proven good practice for closing the gap in educational inequality?’, are the subject of...

Spotlight on mental health and education: New special interest group hosts inaugural conference

Over 80 delegates attended the first conference of the recently launched Mental Health, Wellbeing and Education special interest group (SIG) at the University of West London (UWL) in July. The...

The experiences of teachers who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ+)

The recent protests in England outside primary schools about teaching children about the full spectrum of relationships are a significant concern (Kotecha, 2019). Schools have a duty to promote...

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

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

BERA Bites

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...