Why we need our world history teacher to be a Martian

‘In space, race doesn’t matter, nationality doesn’t matter. In space, you see the world as a globe and you don’t see the boundaries.’ Maggie Aderin Pocock, space scientist Figure 1:...

Conducting research during the pandemic using an ‘ethics of care’

Covid-19, education and educational research

The Covid-19 pandemic has created economic and social instability for many people in Britain and around the world. As such, we might consider it an experience of ‘collective trauma’, combining...

Doing data differently

As various studies of teachers’ lives and work have explored, using attainment data in schools goes over and above what that data are designed to do. The datafication of schooling in England and...

Invest in stopping ineffective things

Schools are hotbeds of innovation. In my role supporting schools to develop more evidence-informed practice, I always admire teachers’ creativity and dedication. However, I also see colleagues...

Remote, distant but connected: Using walking and talking as PhD researchers during Covid-19

In this blog post we aim to share our experiences of the BERA Walk and Talk at a Distance event, and demonstrate how remote walking and talking events have the potential to relieve the isolation...

The BERA Blog: Highlights of 2020

BERA Blog end of year highlights

A warm and wintery ‘welcome’ to all our readers, wherever you may be. This time last year I wished all of you a seasonal ‘yo-ho-ho’, blissfully unaware of how 2020 would play out. Today,...

Great expectations dashed? Evidence, practice and implementation in education

This blog is a reflection on the recent ‘special section’ in Research Intelligence issue 144 entitled ‘How we can improve the use of research evidence (in practice)’, edited by Stephen...

Only time will tell: Using temporal multimodal analysis to predict learning

By analysing the learning process, one can understand how student behaviours are related to learning outcomes. When assessing the learning process, researchers have shown multimodal learning...

What can experiment tell us in educational research?

In education, we’ve put a straitjacket around our notion of experiment. We adhere steadfastly to what Parlett and Hamilton (1972) famously called the ‘agricultural-botany paradigm’. But the...

Deaf children and social wellbeing: The evolution of the special school for the deaf

Research has shown that deaf children experience disadvantage in the education system (Berry, 2017). This disadvantage is associated with a lack of tailored pedagogy, being educated in...

Positioning children with a vision impairment as knowledge producers and change agents

Framing research: Theories, concepts and reflexivity in educational research

‘The ability to collaborate on both a small- and large-scale is becoming one of the core requisites of postmodern society’ (Fullan, 1993, p.5). Yet it is ‘still relatively rare for children...

Storying identities, experiences and agency of graduate teaching assistants

Framing research: Theories, concepts and reflexivity in educational research

‘Have you thought about including recordings of these stories as part of your thesis? It’s just that reading them out loud was really powerful for those of us listening.’ I stopped. To be...