Writing and iPads in the early years classroom

In a recent research project I was involved in, ‘Mobile Devices in Early Learning’ (Gray et al 2017), a teacher, when discussing children’s writing, told me,   ‘The iPad has...

From zero to hero: Anecdotal tales in pursuit of the elusive doctorate

Dave and I met in 2004 when we both moved from teaching to become senior lecturers. We also embarked on our doctorates at the same time, and ended up keeping close company during our studies. The...

Putting Bourdieu into praxis? Possibilities for sociology of education to make a difference in classrooms

Sociology of education has a long, respected and much-valued tradition of critique – that is, identifying injustices, speaking truth to power and, as Bourdieu terms it, ‘shining a spotlight on...

Physical Education External Provision in Irish primary schools

External provision is developing as a trend in schools worldwide, and physical education is no exception to this trend – see for instance New Zealand (Dyson et al 2016), the UK (Griggs 2010,...

Protect academic integrity by refusing to waive your legal rights

Academics’ reputations – certainly those beyond their own students and colleagues – are largely determined by how others judge their research reports and other scholarly writing. So it is...

‘Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field’: Ethics and educational leadership research

This blog reports on the BERA event, ‘Ethics and Educational Leadership Research’, held at the Open University, Milton Keynes, on 28 March 2018. Carol Azumah Dennis’s keynote focussed on the...

Globalisation and individualism: Implications for the inclusion agenda

Highlights from the first 1,000 BERA Blog posts

It is known that, over recent decades, societies around the world have witnessed drastic transformations that have affected various facets of people’s lives. These changes have created...

The gap year for social, emotional and vocational learning in Irish secondary education

The Irish education system includes a quasi-gap year, known as transition year (TY), midway through secondary school. Students may choose to complete six years of secondary education (including TY...

The power of literature: Why literature teaching is about emancipation and social justice

This blog considers something that we all share – memories of reading literature – but its purpose is to promote and defend the place of egalitarian approaches to literature teaching in...