Alternative role of the state for education reforms

Reimagining education has taken centre stage in the post-lockdown era. The colossal impact of Covid-19 on the schooling system has reemphasised the need for new approaches in the education space...

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

A baccalaureate curriculum

The Times Education Commission produced its final report in June 2022, making forty-five recommendations for reforming the English education system. The recommendations ranged from the banal –...

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...

Data in schools: Why gathering reliable data is so important

In 2017, the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills in England (Ofsted) stated for the first time that all of its work is evidence-led. Specifically, the regulator’s...

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...

A tale of two teachers: Reimagining GCSE modern languages

Spotlight on language and literacy

Qualifications in modern languages are changing. Qualifications and assessment reform is on the political agenda in England, Scotland and Wales; while in Northern Ireland, the Council for...

The politics of ‘scientifically-based’ teaching: Phonics for reading and grammar for writing

Spotlight on language and literacy

The teaching of reading and writing understandably attracts attention from researchers, teachers and policymakers because of the importance of literacy for children’s educational development....

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...

Language trends Northern Ireland 2021

Spotlight on language and literacy

Speaking an international language is crucial to understanding another culture and for long-term growth and prosperity (British Academy et al., 2020). So, no matter how many people around the...