Education research: Northern Ireland

Education in Northern Ireland (NI) is characterised by segregation along religious/sectarian lines underpinned by a long history of religious tensions and fractured politics. Ninety-three per...

A closer look at the Future Schools Toolkit

Education research: Northern Ireland

The proliferation of schools, management bodies and sectoral support organisations reflects the socio-cultural and political history of division in Northern Irish society. However, as recognised...

Learning from Covid-19 research in Northern Ireland: Resetting expectations for school–home–community partnerships

Education research: Northern Ireland

The impact of Covid-19 on learning experiences has dominated educational discourse over the past two years. Education practitioners and policymakers now have at their disposal a rich evidence base...

Inequalities in language learning: What are they and how can we fix them?

Education research: Northern Ireland

Young people in the UK are less likely to study a language in upper secondary school than their European peers, and not just because they already speak English (European Commission, 2017). In...

The ‘impractical wisdom’ of the Early Career Framework

In 2019, in response to concerns in England regarding teacher recruitment and retention, the Education Secretary announced a two-year centrally funded Early Career Framework (ECF), designed to...

Ethnicity and the early years workforce in maintained nursery schools across England

In this blog post, Mona Sakr and Shaddai Tembo recap key points from their recent BERA event on race and ethnicity in the early years workforce in maintained nursery schools in England. As part...

‘Talking back’ to the securitisation of higher education classrooms

The alignment of education with actions to prevent radicalisation of young people is a global phenomenon and is reflected in the plethora of initiatives emerging from trans-European networks such...

Bringing educational isolation into focus: Identifying non-urban schools and targeting resources to improve educational outcomes

Imagine you’re a student in an isolated secondary school in a rural, coastal or former industrial area of England. You look and sound like all your classmates; there’s very little diversity....

Can we really trust socioeconomic measures used in PISA tests?

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) conducts the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study of 15-year-old students’ academic achievement. In order...

School exclusions: What does research tell us about the scale of the problem and challenges?

School exclusion is a hot issue within education and there is growing concern about the numbers of exclusions and off-rolling in schools in England. In particular, a number of studies have drawn...

Why is it that we can predict every year which types of students will have been excluded from school?

BERA Early Career Researcher Network Symposium Series 2022

While the numbers may change, the trends are largely the same: young people from certain minority ethnic groups, those who receive free school meals, those who are care-experienced or who are...

The future of the university as a network

The idea and purpose of the contemporary university is key for policymakers, university leaders and researchers. For some, widening university access to the ‘masses’ has created a social...