BERA is delighted to announce that we are funding six new small grants in 2022/23 under the title “Learning for all”. These grants support projects which examine educational provision in its widest sense that seeks to provide or enhance learning opportunities for all. These include interventions, approaches including pedagogical or curriculum approaches and other alternative provision.

Following our open call earlier in the year, we received over 80 applications which were assessed by our College of Reviewers before the final decision made by BERA’s Leadership Committee.

The value of each individual award is up to £5,000 and this year’s awards mean that we will have supported over 25 small grants worth a combined total of over £100,000 since we launched the fund in response the Covid pandemic in 2020. Through the Small Grants Fund, BERA awards funding annually to research on a different, pressing theme each year, with the intention that each project will: 

• make important contributions to the discipline by contributing to and leading current debates 
• develop research capacity by involving postgraduate students and early career researchers 
• receive applications from and involving practitioners and policymakers as well as academic researchers. 

The reports from both the 2020/21 and 2021/22 award can be found on our website.

The projects awarded funding are as follows:

Alice Bradbury, UCL Institute of Education: Food banks in schools: exploring the impact on children’s learning

Anna Lise Gordon, St Mary’s University: Grief Matters – exploring the impact of bereavement and grief on learning for all

Emma Clarke, Bishop Grosseteste University:‘Images from the edge’: Examining girls’ experiences of being at risk of permanent exclusion

Johny Daniel, University of Durham:  Identifying Pupils with Reading Disabilities: A Practitioner Survey

Rebecca Berkley, University of Reading: Musicianship for Teachers: teaching general primary teachers to teach classroom music

Silke Zschomler, U C L Insitute of Education: Developing language learning opportunities for precarious migrant workers at HE institutions – charting possibilities, challenges, and recommendations for policy and practice