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...

Developing a systems-based approach to research use in education

While it is not always easy to see the tectonic plates moving, a culture shift appears to be occurring in English schools towards widespread engagement with research (DfE, 2022). Yet, when we...

Education: The State of the Discipline

Since 2020, BERA has been running a large-scale initiative that aims to provide a clear, comprehensive account of the state of education as an academic discipline in universities; as a field of...

The research and teaching nexus in a post-pandemic world: Undoing inequalities and dysfunctions

The pandemic exposed the vulnerability of a highly marketised English higher education system. With little government support, the fears around lost income resulted in yet more competition between...

Collaborative learning within custodial education

The benefits of collaborative learning are clearly outlined in educational discourse, including: increased achievements, widening knowledge, improvement in teamwork skills and deeper critical...

Inequalities in the discipline of education in UK higher education

Across the globe, quantitative measures in higher education (HE) are drawn upon to identify, monitor and address structural inequalities. Countries differ in their conceptions of in/equality. The...

Education: The State of the Discipline. Staff equality in UK higher education

An exploration of existing statistical data relating to staff equality in UK higher education

Where are the teachers’ voices in the reform of early career teacher induction?

England continues to have a long-standing problem with recruiting and retaining teachers. Despite high-profile policy discourses such as those in the 2022 initial teacher training (ITT) market...