Strategic Plan

Strategic Plan 2021-2026

Our Charitable Objective

To encourage the pursuit of educational research and its application for both the improvement of practice and the public benefit.

Our Vision

BERA’s vision is for educational research to have a profound and positive influence on society across the four nations and internationally.

Our Mission

BERA works to a) foster engagement with educational research, b) build capacity for carrying out educational research, and c) advance quality of educational research.

Our Values

In our work and our actions we will be rigorous, ethical, inclusive, collaborative and ambitious.

Strategic Objectives

• To enhance the health of education as a discipline by nurturing a strong and confident research environment.
• To champion education research, enhancing its use in policymaking and educational practice.
• To celebrate and recognise excellence in the education research community.
• To ensure a strong and sustainable future for BERA. 

Priority Activities

 To enhance the health of education as a discipline by nurturing a strong and confident research environment, we will: 

• Undertake a thorough and rigorous analysis of the state of the discipline, using its findings to inform our work.
• Invest in and support the development of the next generation of researchers by, for example, expanding our Early Career Researcher Network and its activities.
• Champion a more diverse research community, including by commissioning research into the role that race and ethnicity plays in education and by increasing diversity within BERA at all levels of the organisation.
• Continue to offer seed-corn and small-scale funding for research projects.
• Ensure appropriate mechanisms and support for collaboration among our members through our SIGs, forums and networks.

To champion education research, enhancing its use in policymaking and educational practice, we will: 

• Continue to play an active role in the wider social science community by building relationships with other disciplines, for example through their learned societies.
• Offer a broad programme of events, including high-profile public events, and ensure that they fit our strategic priorities and meet the needs of both our members and wider target audiences.
• Establish and maintain good working relationships with strategically significant professional bodies.
• Increase the opportunities for education practitioners to take part in our events and activities, including expanding our teacher membership base and offering.
• Develop our skills and capacity to influence policy, and review how our publications and events contribute to this.

To celebrate and recognise excellence in the education research community, we will:

• Review our awards, ensuring that they cover all career stages and sufficiently recognise high quality research, instituting new awards to fill gaps where appropriate.
• Develop the BERA College of Reviewers to ensure the highest rigour for all our awards and opportunities.
• Nurture our journals, increasing their quality, standing, reach and impact.
• Make greater use of our activities and communications to promote our award winners, funding recipients and their research.
• Play a more active role internationally by developing new collaborations as well as being active members of the World Education Research Association and the European Educational Research Association.

To ensure a strong and sustainable future for BERA, we will:

• Diversify our income streams, reducing our reliance on publications royalties from journals.
• Review our governance to make it more efficient and ensure that our trustees and leaders receive appropriate support and training.
• Invest in our staff and professional services, ensuring the sustainability of our HR, IT and office space contracts.
• Enhance our digital offering, specifically developing our social media presence, the BERA Blog and BERA Podcast, and scoping the creation of a ‘BERA app’.
• Expand our membership by growing the number of HEI-based members, especially senior leaders; developing a membership offer and opportunities specifically for undergraduates; and continuing our efforts to broaden our membership beyond academia targeting practitioners in particular.