Reclaiming teacher education: Opportunities for a research informed & politically engaged profession

Research Intelligence issue 161

This issue of Research Intelligence was commissioned to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the publication of the BERA–RSA Inquiry into research and teacher education (2014) and its emphasis on the importance of research to teacher education. Ten years on, we ask how, if at all, has this changed? Certainly, the trope of ‘evidence’ has dominated much policy discussion about the content and design of teacher education programmes in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (NI) over the past decade, but to what extent is this evidence founded on the report’s emphasis on research from a range of academic disciplines and epistemological traditions? And to what extent do teachers and teacher educators feel equipped to engage with, consume and produce research?

Guest edited by Elizabeth Rushton, Clare Brooks, Elaine Sharpling and Barbara Skinner, this issue features contributions from across the four UK jurisdictions, and Ontario, Canada, from teacher educators, researchers and teachers engaged in research, each reflecting on the recommendations of the inquiry alongside their own research, practice and policy context. Articles underline how teacher education policy and shifts have been more active in some areas than others, and the link between policy, and tendency to rely on a narrow set of research approaches and the problems that yields, has affected some parts of the UK more than others.

Contributions to this issue:

• Gary Beauchamp, Moira Hulme, Paul McFlynn and Trevor Mutton report on how policy and research have changed across the UK since publication of the inquiry.
• Trevor Mutton, Alexandra Morgan, Emmajane Milton and Anna Bryant, and Jane Waters-Davies and Kay Livingston, examine the serious attempt in Wales to bring research and practice together through partnership and the challenges that have emerged.
• Katharine Burn and Trevor Mutton, co-authors of one of the inquiry papers, review the role of research.
• Jim Hordern discusses how research has changed and what sort is needed for teacher education.
• Lucy Rockliffe, Rachel Dawson and Chara Kitsaki reflect on how research and practice are enmeshed.
• Claire Woods, from Northern Ireland, considers the relationship with leadership.
• Tanya Ovenden-Hope examines how the initial teacher training market review in England has had an adverse impact on rural schools.
• David Montemurro shows how teacher education policy in Ontario has been able to foreground equity, sustainability and diversity issues.
• Haira Gandolfi and Elizabeth Rushton’s article on decoloniality and anti-racist education presents a rather different picture.

Elsewhere in this issue:

• BERA President, Marlon Moncrieffe, writes his first ‘Message from the BERA president’, following his address at BERA conference in September.
• We feature the official photos and highlights from the BERA Annual Conference 2024 and WERA Focal Meeting.
• We announce the new editorial team for The Curriculum Journal.
• Empowering Teachers for Equitable and Sustainable Education, edited by Maria Teresa Tatto, is reviewed in this issue’s book feature.
• The 2024 John Nisbet Fellow, Lani Florian, reflects on the problems that arise with the theory–practice gap in teacher education.
• The convenors for the BERA Neurodivergent Researchers Network reflect on the origins and aims of their new network.
• The special feature celebrating BERA’s 50th anniversary year concludes:
  • Chief Executive, Nick Johnson, reviews the most recent decade of BERA’s history as a period of growth and key developments to the present day.
  • Former BERA President, Dominic Wyse, reflects on his memories of BERA from 2014 to 2024.
  • Yuwei Xu writes about his experience with BERA as an international academic in the UK.
• Brittany Wright, BERA ECR network convenor, reflects on short-term contracts for ECRs in an increasingly precarious university sector.