BERA Blog highlights from 2019

BERA Blog end of year highlights

A seasonal ‘yo-ho-ho’ to all our BERA Blog readers here in the UK and around the world in this, our fourth end-of-year-highlights special edition. The BB continues to grow, with more special...

Total recall? The ITE content framework, research and teachers’ understandings of learning

The key teacher education policy issue at the 2019 general election is the initial teacher education (ITE) content framework for England, rushed out in the dying hours of the Conservative...

ITE content and the work of the content advisory group

Identifying components of initial teacher education (ITE) that all accredited ITE providers in England will have to adopt was never going to be an easy task. On the one hand, ITE providers must...

How research can inform teachers and teaching in schools

Despite renewed efforts in many countries to align educational practice more closely with findings from educational research, there is little clarity about how teachers can, in principle, use...

Yes, they can! Teachers and learners as language curriculum developers

In contexts in which English as a foreign language is a mandatory subject in secondary education, language learning motivation can be a challenge for teachers and ministerial curriculum...

Spotlight on mental health and education: New special interest group hosts inaugural conference

Over 80 delegates attended the first conference of the recently launched Mental Health, Wellbeing and Education special interest group (SIG) at the University of West London (UWL) in July. The...

Money is not the solution to the teacher shortage – or is it?

In England, less affluent areas have had greater difficulties in attracting qualified teachers than many other parts of the country. In coastal rural areas, which can be highly deprived, 7 per...

What (if anything) do we know about millennial educational leaders?

This blog post explores the concept of the ‘millennial school leader’, ahead of the presentation of our paper at the BERA Conference 2019. Our session will explore the findings of a systematic...

BERA Bites, issue 4: Reimagining a curriculum for teacher knowledge

The BERA Bites series presents selected articles from the BERA Blog on key topics in education, presented in an easily printable and digestible format to serve as teaching and learning...

Personal, social, health and economics education in initial teacher education : Why bother?

With the recent changes to legislation in relationship education and health education being announced as statutory within primary schools in England from September 2020 (Children and Social Work...

Mental health and wellbeing among trainee teachers

There is growing concern regarding the mental health and wellbeing of teachers in the UK. The charity Education Support Partnership recently published the Teacher Wellbeing Index 2018, which found...

Critical thinking: An ambiguous concept in educational policy contexts

What is the role of transnational and national education policies in the realisation of critical thinking?