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The edublogger, the school and the academy

In December 2018, BERA published my blog, ‘In pursuit of a secure base? Education commentary in times of socio-political uncertainty’. The core point of that article was to consider a topic...

CollectivED: Curating voices in professional learning

The thread As a new professor I was invited to establish a research and practice centre, and it was suggested by the dean of my school that creating a working paper series would be a valuable...

Pedagogic appropriateness: Judging quality in practitioner enquiry

Most teachers would not dream of giving a non-reader a text-heavy piece of comprehension with 20 or more questions to answer without some support or scaffolding, if at all. Neither would we ask...

Synergising research in early childhood education: Creating a collaborative space between close-to-practice research and academia

Since the turn of the 21st century there has been a push for teaching to become a research-based profession in a way that is practically relevant to the classroom. The recent research report...

Academic or practitioner? Border-crossings and close-to-practice research

My professional career started in the mid-1980s. It has involved a journey from school teaching into higher education: I have worked as a research fellow, lecturer, professor and university senior...

Towards ‘slow pedagogy’: Revaluing the reading seminar for professional development

How ‘old school’ can it get? A text on the table and a small group of people around it. All have read the text, and gather to discuss it together. That’s the setting of a reading seminar....

Is pupil premium funding the answer to a worldwide problem?

Worldwide, socioeconomically disadvantaged students have lower average attainment outcomes at school, and poorer opportunities once they have left school. In England, poorer pupils are also...

Research Ethics Case Studies: 2. Researcher wellbeing & international fieldwork

Research Ethics Case Studies 2019

Focussing on an early-career researcher embarking on her first academic role, this second entry in BERA’s  Research Ethics Case Studies series considers the ethical issues that arise not only...

BERA Research Ethics Case Studies: 3. Anticipating the application & unintended consequences of practitioner research

Research Ethics Case Studies 2019

This third entry in BERA’s Research Ethics Case Studies series considers the unintended consequences of practitioner research – or, by extension, any research project that involves multiple...

Informed consent and assent, and the ethical review process, with/for research with the very young

This post introduces the challenges associated with gaining ethical review board approval, and securing the informed consent and assent of participant families, in educational research. It draws...

You don’t understand us!

'You don’t understand us or the subject!’ This is a frequent cry heard by me, as a university research ethics chair, from educational researchers trying to get ethics approval for research...

Is written informed consent always required for educational research?

While informed consent is important, obtaining written consent from participants can be problematic.