The BERA Early Career Researcher (ECR) Network planned a series of events throughout 2020 on the theme, ‘Framing research: Theories, concepts and reflexivity in educational research’, with the intention of providing researchers with opportunities to share and discuss work that draws upon concepts and ideas from diverse disciplines, theoretical frameworks and ideological positions, and to share their research stories.

A newly published series of BERA Blogs, guest-edited by Louise Kay and Liz Chezworth, aims to extend these opportunities to a wider readership, and develop our understanding of how theoretical and conceptual framings are enacted in real-world research contexts. While the Covid-19 crisis meant that most of these planned events were postponed, in this collection the delegates at one symposium that did go ahead – in Sheffield on 14 February 2020 – share and discuss their creative and interdisciplinary approaches to educational research, and reflect on the insights and experiences they gained during the symposium. Their diverse interests are united by a common concern for methodologies that foreground respectful, collaborative and ethical research relationships.