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The changing nature of young children’s learning ecologies, experiences and implications for pedagogy in the digital era

Digitalisation has changed the ways of everyday living in the 21st century, and has impacted on the constructions of childhood.* Characterisations such as ‘techno babies’ (O'Connor 2014) or...

Young children’s perceptions of due process in schools’ disciplinary procedures

‘It’s not fair!’ is a common phrase heard in schools. But what is ‘fair’ in the eyes of pupils? Our recently published study in the British Educational Research Journal explored how...

BERA Bites: A resource for teachers, lecturers and students from the BERA Blog

The BERA Blog editors are pleased to announce the launch of a new series of publications: BERA Bites, edited collections of selected articles on key topics in education published on the BERA Blog....

BERA Bites, issue 1: Early childhood

BERA Bites

The BERA Bites series presents selected articles from the BERA Blog on key topics in education, presented in an easily printable and digestible format to serve as teaching and learning resources...

Shared understandings of technology to support children’s digital citizenship

For young children, understandings of technology as a cultural tool are both ‘inherited and transformed’ (Rogoff 2003: 51), and often differ from previous generations’ perceptions of...

Closing the gap in access to free ‘universal’ early education: What affects participation among low-income families?

For over a decade, all children in England have been entitled to free government-funded early education and care from the term after they turn three. One of the aims of this policy is to close the...

Using tablets in free play: The implementation of the digital play framework in Greece

The integration of technology in the early years of education has followed a rocky path, with many obstacles to overcome. Together with research around the use of new technologies by young...

A baseline without basis: The validity and utility of the proposed reception baseline assessment in England

This report sets out the case against the government’s proposal to use a baseline assessment test of pupils in reception to hold schools in England to account for the progress that those pupils...

Cultures of compassion in early childhood education

Unpleasant experiences, like hurting oneself, missing parents, or being excluded from play, are evident parts of early childhood education (ECE). Although we cannot (and sometimes should not)...

Bold beginnings or black holes? The encroachment of summative assessment into the reception curriculum

Black holes themselves are invisible against the backdrop of space. We only become aware of their presence as they begin to drag in objects around them, warping the very fabric of the universe....

Sites of resistance: Gypsies, Roma and Travellers in school, community and the academy

Schools are institutions in which racial conflict is brought into focus and can be acute. Gillborn (2008) asserts that current education policy is not designed to eliminate race inequality, but to...

Setting and the academic underachievement of white working class boys

The under-achievement of white working class boys in England is well documented. They are the lowest academic achievers at the age of 16 for any socio-economic class grouping (Sutton Trust, 2016),...