Are private schools really that good?

Recently research sponsored by the Independent Schools Council (ISC) was released that “attending an Independent school in England is associated with the equivalent of two additional years of...

What do ‘skills’ mean for school governing bodies?

In a recently published article[i] in the Journal of Education Policy (JEP), I traced how governors with ‘skills’ are increasingly privileged over representative governors. I wrote about the...

Explaining Trump’s Rise, Educationally

The rise of Donald Trump as front running Republican Party presidential candidate in the United States has startled many left-liberal leaning members of the society, and captured the attention of...

The essence of social pedagogy

Background...

Could the study of historical contingency help to enliven students’ critical citizenship?

Critical citizenship education often amounts to training in critical thinking – rudimentary discourse analysis or media criticism aimed at developing critical literacy skills. Such skills are...

Using visual methods to help us move from researching on to researching with

My recently completed PhD (Clark, 2015) explored my 23-year long (meandering) academic journey through participatory research. I have always been interested in how we can do research differently...

Pupil voice in quality assurance of schools

Highlights from the first 1,000 BERA Blog posts

The importance of quality assurance in education is established both by politicians and teachers alike. Schools embrace quality assurance primarily because they recognise its role in...

Some thoughts on the purpose of education

The UK is a divided society and many current educational systems maintain inequality and rivalry. Intergroup tensions underpin international conflict. Instead of prioritising competition and...

Shifting identities: a mixed-methods study of the experiences of teachers who are also parents

My research project, for a Doctorate in Education at Middlesex University, examines the experiences of teacher-parents in UK maintained schools, and poses the central question: What is the...