We need to talk about language: The researcher view

Coming from a background in community learning and development, my work in partnership with Banff Academy as part of my PhD research has been an interesting and rewarding experience. I find myself...

Scotland: Reform, professionalism and delivery

We are delighted that Graham Donaldson has guest edited this collection of blogs looking in particular at the current education agenda in Scotland. As Graham says in his overview contribution,...

Linking environmental science to the curriculum for Excellence on an initial teacher training programme

The focus of Scottish initial teacher training programmes on numeracy, literacy and child development has undergone change over the last few decades, primarily due to the requirements set out in...

Critically Examining the Emergence of Teach First

In the latest issue of the British Educational Research Journal, Allen and Allnutt (2017) assess, using longitudinal data, the impact of Teach First teachers on secondary pupils’ outcomes. ...

The whys and why nots of taking primary pupils on a farm visit

In keeping with Scottish education historically, the importance of outdoor learning is emphasised in the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) guidelines (Beames et al., 2009). There had been an...

Professional Learning for Teacher Leadership

Scotland: Reform, professionalism and delivery

Teacher leadership is a term which is increasingly being used in Scottish educational policy and the Scottish College for Educational Leadership (SCEL) has been tasked with supporting the...

Teacher Agency and Curriculum Development

Scotland: Reform, professionalism and delivery

Recent curriculum policy in the UK and elsewhere (e.g. Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence, Successful Futures in Wales, and the New Zealand Curriculum Framework) marks a significant departure...

International teaching opportunity for Scottish undergraduate primary teaching students

Globalisation has impacted education increasingly in recent years (Townsend, 2011) and internationalisation has been used within higher education as a concept to explore this (Luginbühl (2011)....

BERA/TACTYC 2016 Academic and User Reviews: Early Childhood Education Keynote symposium

Members of the Early Childhood SIG are presenting the BERA/TACTYC Academic Review of Early Childhood Education, bringing together specialists in BERA and TACTYC (Association for Professional...

History and Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence

Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence treats the subject of history (or People, Past Events and Societies, as it is known) as a ‘social subject’ alongside geography and modern studies.  It...

Can We Stop It? Yes We Can! Stamping Out English Cultural “imperialism”

I subscribe to The London Review of Books (LRB). The main article on May 7th 2015 was about free schools and academies. It provoked a vigorous debate (on 21/5. 4/6 and 18/6) with serious...

Teacher agency: What is it and why does it matter?

Highlights from the first 1,000 BERA Blog posts

The concept of ‘teacher agency’ has elicited a fair amount of attention recently, including a special edition of Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice. And yet, it remains an elusive...