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...

The origins of further education in England and Wales

There is a lack of historical accounts of the further education (FE) sector in England and Wales, which is reflective of its broader historical-cultural positioning. FE sits between secondary...

Challenging consumerism through education as human development

The culture of transforming everything into products to be ‘consumed by the market’ is manifesting itself as a global pathology. This trend is destroying longstanding communities of practice...

March Of The Four Year Olds

On 25th April 2019 More than a Score organised a march from Parliament Square to 10 Downing Street to hand in a petition calling for a halt to statutory tests for four-year-olds. The petition had...

Five ways in which Edu-exit was the test run for Brexit

Brexit is the current and incredibly dangerous version of the ongoing and deeply rooted restructuring of UK health, welfare, security, and education services. Comparing the UK government reforms...

What next for curriculum?

People are talking about curriculum again. Not just literacy and maths, but the whole curriculum. What’s more, there seems to be a real appetite for these discussions: organisations as diverse...

Is the ‘attainment gap’ fit for purpose?

In 2011 the UK government announced that it would introduce a new stream of funding to support ‘disadvantaged students’, and ultimately aim to close the attainment gap between these students...

The Future of Educational Research in Wales

This report, published by BERA in partnership with the Welsh Government, presents the proceedings of and lessons from the Future of Educational Research in Wales conference. Held in Cardiff on 14...

Curriculum development through professional enquiry: Developments in Wales

Since the publication of Graham Donaldson’s report in 2015 (Donaldson, 2015) and the adoption of its recommendations by the Welsh Government, pioneer schools across Wales have been taking the...

Forget me not? LGBTIQ+ representation and rights in education

In the film 120 Beats Per Minute, which depicts the work of Act UP Paris during the AIDS epidemic in France in the 1990s, activists perform a nonviolent instance of direct action: they enter a...

The gender wars, academic freedom and education

Highlights from the first 1,000 BERA Blog posts

Academics who do not adhere to a particular line on gender and transgender issues have suffered intimidation by trans activists. The people under attack are not mavericks or extremists. They are...

Deconstructing the SATs process: Resistance is futile?

In April 2016, a mother voiced her concerns on the English Local Schools Network website (Secret Parent, 2016) about withdrawing her 10-year-old from the new key stage 2 SATs. Her main concern was...