In pursuit of a secure base? Education commentary in times of socio-political uncertainty

In 1973, at the beginning of the 1970s international oil crisis, and amid emergent Watergate revelations, Paul Simon sang ‘we come in the age’s most uncertain hour...’. At around the same...

The challenge of researching dialogic interactions in digital classroom contexts

Language is the most ubiquitous and flexible of the meaning-making tools. As such, it is a teacher’s main pedagogic tool (Littleton & Mercer, 2013). ‘Classroom dialogue’ can be thought of as...

Drawing a line in the sand: Reflective practice using ‘sandboxing’ with HE students

The future of educational research in Wales

The ability to reflect in and on practice (Schön, 1983; 1991) is an integral professional skill within the field of education. This metacognitive process develops effective practitioners and...

Action research in the classroom: Applying spacing and retrieval practice

The future of educational research in Wales

I have been a classroom teacher for nearly two decades, but have only recently undertaken action research. In this post I describe my experiences with spacing (Bjork & Bjork, 2014; Cepeda et al,...

Struggles surrounding prison radicalisation research

Since the 9/11 attack, terrorism studies have received a great volume of attention from academics. Terrorism is not a field that is easily researched, at least at first glance, and as such it...

The battle against being educated

I have been publicly exploring the issue of disruption, violence and students’ challenging behaviour in post-school classrooms since 2000 (Lebor, 2000). Susan Wallace has also carried out...

Reflecting on the conference season: Where did your presentations end up as a result of social media dissemination?

As you reflect on the BERA Conference, have you thought about where images of and reflections about your presentations ended up as a result of social media dissemination? Who heard about them, who...

Performative education policy and the challenges for teachers with specific learning differences

Presently there are gaps in the body of research on teachers with specific learning differences (SpLDs). Where research on the matter does exist, it tends to focus on resilience strategies in...

How might teacher design help to support sustainable innovation in higher education?

Higher education around the world is facing the significant challenge of providing excellent teaching in response to complex, shifting pressures. Institutions must adapt to changing student...

Does bias in secondary school track recommendations change over time?

Tracked educational systems, such as many European systems for secondary education, are frequently associated with higher levels of educational inequity compared with comprehensive systems....

The changing nature of young children’s learning ecologies, experiences and implications for pedagogy in the digital era

Digitalisation has changed the ways of everyday living in the 21st century, and has impacted on the constructions of childhood.* Characterisations such as ‘techno babies’ (O'Connor 2014) or...

Do value-added measures of school and teacher performance reflect genetic differences between students?

Metrics of school and teacher performance are increasingly used by policymakers and in the UK education systems to determine, for example, performance-related pay and positions in school league...