The future of educational research in Wales

If you would like to view this in Welsh, please click here. The education system in Wales is currently on an ambitious and innovative reform journey and research and evidence informed practices...

BERA Research Commission 2018/2020 – Competing Discourses of Early Childhood Education and Care

Following the recent call for proposals, we are delighted to announce the first award for a Research Commission to run in 2019. Competing Discourses of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC):...

“When the winds of change blow, some people build walls and others build windmills.” – Chinese proverb

Scotland: Reform, professionalism and delivery

The winds of change can be welcome, pushing you to a better world. For many teachers in Wales today the current climate feels more like a storm. In 1999 the first elections to the newly...

Educational research in Welsh HEIs: a ‘state of the nation’ survey

Since devolution in 1999, the Welsh Government has developed a distinctive programme of education reform which needs to be underpinned by a strong evidence base. However, while the need for...

Living, not just learning, the Welsh language

Since 2013, the Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research Data & Methods (WISERD) has conducted research with pupils, teachers and parents in 29 primary and secondary schools throughout Wales....

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...

Wales and the politics of education

On the 5th May 2016, the people of Wales went to the polls to elect members of the National Assembly – to which all matters of education policy in the country are devolved. The outcome of the...

Giving, saving, spending: What would Welsh children do with £1 million?

WISERD Education has been exploring children’s responses to a single question: ‘If someone gave you £1 million today, what would you do with it?’ Although such an exploration might seem...

Reviewing the Potential and Challenges of Developing STEAM Education

Reviewing the Potential and Challenges of Developing STEAM Education through Creative Pedagogies for 21st Century Learning: how can school curricula be broadened towards a more responsive, dynamic...

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...

Fy Ardal/My Neighbourhood: Pupils’ perceptions of place — a pedagogy for living in Wales

For the past three years, the Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research Data & Methods (WISERD) has been conducting research with pupils, teachers and parents in 29 primary and secondary...

Accidents will happen…but why is there so little educational research on disasters?

On the 21st October 1966 forty thousand cubic metres of coal debris from a badly maintained National Coal Board waste site in Aberfan, South Wales, destroyed the Pantglas junior school below. ...