BERA Blog highlights from 2019

BERA Blog end of year highlights

A seasonal ‘yo-ho-ho’ to all our BERA Blog readers here in the UK and around the world in this, our fourth end-of-year-highlights special edition. The BB continues to grow, with more special...

Total recall? The ITE content framework, research and teachers’ understandings of learning

The key teacher education policy issue at the 2019 general election is the initial teacher education (ITE) content framework for England, rushed out in the dying hours of the Conservative...

General Election 2019: Where do the Tories, Labour and Lib Dems stand on education?

What can we expect from the three main UK political parties if elected to government? I have compared the education sections of the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat manifestos. (All...

Winter 2019

The latest issue of Research Intelligence showcases the strength and depth of recent research on post-compulsory and lifelong learning.

The new Ofsted framework

Curriculum may be back in vogue, but it augments rather than replaces the standards agenda

School accountability by Progress 8: A critique of Conservative and Labour proposals

The Conservatives and Labour hold different views on the future of England’s system of school accountability by Progress 8. However, both parties’ thinking is at odds with the research...

General Election 2019

Ahead of the forthcoming General Election to be held on 12th December 2019, the manifestos, or equivalent, of the parties can be found below. Conservative Party Labour Party Liberal...

Educational leadership: Post-conference reflections on an ever-changing field

As it is for many of my colleagues BERA’s Annual Conference is one of the highlights of my academic year. It’s the one conference that I try not to miss – not only to see my annual...

How technology makes us human: Cultural historical roots for design and technology education

This blog post accompanies an article by McLain, Irving-Bell, Wooff and Morrison-Love (2019), in a political climate where an ideological interpretation of knowledge (Biesta, 2014; Muller & Young,...

School readiness, early years education and neoliberal subjectivities

This symposium built upon BERA’s research commission, Competing Discourses of Early Childhood Education and Care, and critically explored why and how early childhood education and care (ECEC)...

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...