In 2024, we marked the significant milestone of our 50th anniversary. This occasion gave us an opportunity to honour our history while looking ahead to the future.

Together, BERA made exciting progress across our key priorities:

• Funding innovative research
• Deepening member engagement
• Championing the work of researchers.

These efforts underscore our commitment to advancing educational research and strengthening our community. Here are some highlights from a memorable year.  

Publications 

BERA continued to provide a vital platform for thought-provoking educational research. The BERA Blog had an extraordinary year, publishing 280 posts, alongside 8 special issues on timely topics such as the climate crisis and global education. Our BERA Bites series added accessible research summaries, and we launched a Blog newsletter to keep you connected with the latest discussions. 

Research Intelligence looked back through the archives over the past 50 years to pull out some past articles alongside personal stories from those there at the time and some reflections on BERA’s evolution over the past 50 years. 

The year saw the launch of the BERA Guides series with Emerald Publishing, including Guides on Decolonising the Curriculum and Mental Health and Wellbeing in Schools. The much-anticipated fifth edition of BERA’s Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research and our own book, Curriculum in a Changing World: 50 Think Pieces on Education, were also published, enriching resources available to our members. We also published the reports for the Brian Simon Research fund, representing a £25,000 research investment for the organisation. We ended the year by updating the 40@40 collection we had published to mark our 40th anniversary. Including ten new studies from the past decade alongside a policy narrative in 50@50. 

Membership and Networks 

We were thrilled to report that membership surpassed 3,000 for the first time, a testament to the thriving community of educators and researchers dedicated to advancing our field. To enhance inclusivity and professional development, we introduced the BERA Teacher Network, the Neurodivergent Researchers Network, and a new Careers and Employability Special Interest Group (SIG), broadening our commitment to inclusivity and professional growth. Our Early Career Researcher Network continued to support researchers within 5 years of PhD through networking events and funding schemes. 

On social media, our community expanded to over 17,500 followers on X (formerly Twitter), and we are now on LinkedIn and BlueSky to share and connect more widely. 

Research Funding 

Investing in research that makes a difference remained our top priority. We awarded £20,000 in Small Grants focusing on teacher education, and £5,000 in the BCF Curriculum Investigation Grant addressing the challenges of AI in education. We awarded our annual ECR Development Fellowship worth £2000 each to two Early Career Researchers. Excitingly, we partnered with the Kusuma Trust to establish the Neurodiversity in Mainstream Schools Grant Programme providing over £160,000 to study neurodiversity in schools. 

Celebrating Excellence in Education 

Recognising high quality outputs and exceptional contributions to educational research is central to what we do. We presented our Equality in Education Award to Chantelle Haughton, celebrated Academic Citizenship by recognising Mark Priestley, and Lani Florian became the 19th recipient of the prestigious John Nisbet Fellowship. We honoured excellence in publishing with our Educational Research Book of the Year Award awarded to “Elite Universities and the Making of Privilege: Exploring Race and Class in Global Educational Economies” by Kalwant Bhopal and Martin Myers.

Annual Conference 

The 2024 BERA Annual Conference, held jointly with WERA, was a vibrant, international celebration in Manchester attended by 2,000 delegates. We kicked off with eight pre-conference events on topics including academic publishing and research impact, and offered 50 bursaries of £500 to support attendance, especially for early career researchers and international delegates. This conference was also an incredible venue for networking, with over 100 attendees at our ECR social and 200 guests at the gala dinner.

Events and Outreach 

Our events programme flourished, with 38 online events, 4 in-person sessions, and the 2nd Annual ECR Conference, which set a record for attendance. We celebrated BERA’s anniversary at the AGM with a 50th birthday party, bringing together key figures from our rich history. The BERA Presidential Seminar Series also kicked off in Scotland, with sessions across other UK nations planned for 2025.

Governance, Strategy, and Staffing 

The year saw significant updates to BERA’s leadership and infrastructure. We welcomed Marlon Moncrieffe as our new President and launched an expert panel on funding for educational research. Additionally, we updated our Race Equity Policy to reflect best practices, introduced a refreshed BERA logo, and celebrated the opening of our new office, a partnership with the Political Studies Association.