BERA 2022 Welcome

A Welcome from Professor Mhairi C Beaton, Conference and Events Committee Chair

As I begin to write this welcome text to our 2022 BERA Annual Conference, my thoughts have turned to the time of writing the welcome text to the BERA Annual Conference 2020 which had been scheduled to take place in Liverpool in September that year. During the intervening two years, the world has experienced a global pandemic which will have far reaching repercussions on both a personal and professional level for many of us.

During those intervening years, many of us have experienced a sense of isolation as we worked from home and communicated through online meetings. As BERA was preparing for the 2022 BERA Annual Conference, it seemed fitting therefore to return to our original plan to meet in Liverpool. During the last two years, Liverpool has experienced the global pandemic in similar ways to many other large cosmopolitan cities but the people of the city continue to pride themselves on their warm welcome to visitors and so we look forward to returning to this vibrant, modern city.

During the past two years, BERA as an organisation has continued to go from strength to strength. Membership of BERA has continued to grow. The range of activities of BERA has never been so rich and wide ranging as the organisation has embraced the affordances of digital events.

The BERA Annual Conference 2022 will give an opportunity to celebrate and disseminate research that has been undertaken in recent years by our members. Perhaps even more importantly this year, the BERA Annual Conference 2022 will give us the opportunity to network in person with colleagues – both old friends and new.

We look forward to seeing you in Liverpool.

Professor Mhairi C Beaton
Conference and Events Committee Chair

Why attend?

For educational researchers the BERA Annual Conference is an important date in their professional year. It provides the opportunity to:

• network with existing colleagues
• support new colleagues at the start of their careers
• establish the beginnings of new collaborations
• exchange ideas with like-minded colleagues; and sometimes more profitably, with non-like-minded colleagues
• make new links with potential publishers or funders
• learn about research outside your own area and investigate possible connections
• indulge in discussions of ‘blue sky’ research that reminds you why you are a researcher

Seasoned BERA delegates could probably add several more reasons of their own as to why they return but for most it is about being part of a community of researchers. A community that is dynamic and changes over time; not just in terms of its members but in the way it does things. Participating in a vibrant conference is one way of making sure that you contribute to that change.