We are delighted to announce the second winner of our doctoral fellowship, awarded to a prospective doctoral student already accepted by an institution. Sarah Clayton will be undertaking her research on ‘Climate change as a threshold concept and its treatment in school curricula’ at the University of York.  

Sarah trained as a secondary science teacher and while working completed a part-time master’s in education at the University of Manchester, earning a distinction. She now hopes to further her studies before working once again with schools at a policy level, to try and influence leadership to make evidence-based decisions. Sarah’s application and presentation were outstanding, and we wish her every success.  

Also highly commended were proposals from Chris Reid (‘Learning science: What’s curiosity got to do with it?’), Kim Smith (‘In what way does the primary school education system in England address food literacy? How can food literacy be developed to help children learn to navigate the food system and consumer sustainable diets for life’) and Phyllis McNally (‘The role of informal learning in intercultural citizenship development: an investigation into student-led initiatives that support forcibly displaced people in the UK’). We wish all three success in their studies and have awarded them a free conference place to further their engagement.  

The BERA Doctoral Fellowship was launched in 2019 to recognise the significance that BERA places in investing in academic capability and developing its potential for future educational research.  

Recipients will receive funding either against their annual fees or their maintenance as well as a yearly concessionary place to the annual BERA Conference with some additional support for travel and/or accommodation and membership of BERA for the duration of the award.  

Thank you to all those who applied, we were delighted in the quality of applications.