Teacher identity in a performative age: Coming to research through autoethnography

What is it to be a teacher? In 2014, five years into my career as a primary school teacher, I would have answered that question with a story of early promise as a trainee and professional success...

What you need to know to get the best from online education: A BJET/JCAL virtual special issue

Covid-19, education and educational research

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we’re all going through a period unlike any we have ever experienced. With respect to teaching and learning, students can’t attend school and universities – and...

Placing the subject at the heart of initial teacher education: How do mentors focus on subject specifics within lesson observation feedback?

Despite written lesson observation feedback being valued by beginning teachers (Hobson, Ashby, Malderez, & Tomlinson, 2009) and perceived as a mechanism to link theory and practice (Puttick,...

The importance of the wider context: How an ecological approach can assist in understanding ICT take-up

Those researching technology use in education often switch between excessive optimism and excessive pessimism. They see the opportunities that new technology offers for creativity and a more...

In a practitioner enquiry approach, is reflexivity the same as researcher metacognition?

The connection between metacognition and reflexivity might feel like a relatively academic link to make but, for the two of us, it is about securing practitioner enquiry in the teacher domain...

Teaching professionalism in Norway and Brazil: Why combine concepts and compare countries?

This blog post will address two questions: When studying the teaching profession, why combine the concepts of teacher autonomy and teacher agency? And why compare such different national settings...

The PGCE journey: Wellbeing and workload

Researching education and mental health: From ‘Where are we now?’ to ‘What next?’

The PGCE route into teaching has the lowest retention rate (Allen et al., 2016). Many students embarking on a PGCE are warned about the challenges of the course, as the following blog extract...

Personal values and trainee teacher wellbeing

Researching education and mental health: From ‘Where are we now?’ to ‘What next?’

Values and wellbeing Many teachers in England and Europe report the demands of their job harm their wellbeing (Education Support, 2019; ETUCE, 2011). Poor wellbeing is cited as a key reason why...

Teacher wellbeing: A systemic perspective

Researching education and mental health: From ‘Where are we now?’ to ‘What next?’

Education Support is the mental health and wellbeing charity of the education sector. We provide accredited counselling and welfare support to individuals, wellbeing services that enable schools...

BERA Bites, issue 5: Research used or produced in schools: Which informs practitioners most?

BERA Bites

The BERA Blog on key topics in education, presented in an easily printable and digestible format to serve as teaching and learning resources for students and professionals in education. Each...

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

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...