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...

Da Process: Hip-Hop, Pedagogy and Black Bodies

My relationship with Hip-Hop is multi-layered and complex: I have grown up with Hip-Hop; on one hand it has been an educator, a source of inspiration and an entertainer (and many more things). Yet...

Educational leadership: what are the current issues and how should they be studied?

2016 is a great time to review the state of educational leadership research and reflect on firstly, what are the key contemporary issues and secondly, how best to research them. Educational...

Professional development and the Teaching Schools experiment in England: Leadership challenges in an Alliance’s first year

Launched in England from 2010, Teaching Schools are intended to drive improvement across the education system by forming partnerships or ‘alliances’ with other schools and providers to share...