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The period when the British Educational Research Association (BERA) was founded was one in which there was an increasing recognition amongst the research community that a wind of change had stirred up the settled traditions of educational research. It was a time which celebrated the promise of alternative paradigms for research. Ten or so years on we are entering another era where the emphasis is not on the reconceptualisation of what research is but on how it is organised. I think one can discern at least two factors, not wholly separate from each other, that will increasingly influence how a substantial part of research will be organised. These two factors are the changes which have taken place in the composition of the research community and the direction of current Government policy concerning the school system. I aim to show how these are leading to a fruitful form of collaborative research at local level which should be encouraged and supported—not least by BERA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on equal opportunities, research and educational reform in Great Britain. Anti-egalitarian trend; Ideologies and initiatives in education; Enactment of educational and social policy.

This article has two chief purposes. It presents a substantive reappraisal of a decade of school choice research in the UK. This reappraisal is used as a case study illustrating the elasticity of the notion of social science 'evidence', when wielded by academics in an area where strong ideological preconceptions struggle with the lack of a sound quantitative tradition of research. The focus here is on the changing socio-economic compositions of schools in an era of choice. A prediction from theory and from small-scale studies had been that schools in England and Wales would become more segregated in terms of indicators of socio-economic disadvantage after the Education Reform Act 1988. The first large-scale study of the actual compositions of schools suggested that this did not happen. This study was then subjected by a majority of UK academics in the field to a level of criticism that was not applied by them to subsequent, but seemingly inferior, studies that reached an opposite conclusion. The criticism involved widespread misquotation and misunderstanding that was not picked up by 'peer' review. What, therefore, counts as evidence in the school choice debate? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the case for 'assertive pluralism' in economics education and proposes how to achieve it, illustrating the point with reference to the U.K. Subject Benchmark Statement in Economics (SBSE). It proposes a revision of the benchmark, prioritizing the role of controversy in the teaching of economics, combined with pluralistic principles that uphold and guarantee critical and independent thinking. This reform is a necessary response to what Colander et al. (2009) term the 'systemic failure' of economics--the inability of the profession, taken as a whole, to anticipate and understand the financial crash and recession of 2008. Failure on this scale testifies to a more deep-seated weakness in economics than commonly recognized. It arises from what Turner (Tett 2009) terms the regulatory capture of the economics profession by narrow financial interests. The public, and the economics profession, require specific protection against the pressures that have produced this systemic failure. This requires a rethink of the relation of economics to society, founded on a rejection of the idea that the function of economics is to provide a single, unequivocal solution to every problem of policy. Instead, the article explains, good economics should be constrained to evaluate the full range of relevant solutions to any given policy issue, leaving the decisionmakers accountable for the decisions they make on which solution to adopt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers insight into the realization of the Higher Education Funding Council for England's vision for Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETLs) as catalysts for change. Two CETLs, the Centre for Interprofessional e-Learning (CIPeL) and the Surrey Centre for Excellence in Professional Training and Education (SCEPTrE), provide illustrative cases of two similar but different change initiatives. CETLs might be expected to embody and inspire creativity in teaching and learning yet they are embedded in institutions where activities are increasingly shaped by the discourse of performativity. Findings from the two case studies, which focus on similar schemes designed to promote staff involvement in creative projects, challenge the suggestion that creativity is stifled in a performative context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a cross-national trend towards unified curriculum and qualifications frameworks in upper secondary education, but such reforms face epistemological, political and institutional barriers and 'unification' remains a contested issue in many countries, including England. This article examines the experience of the Scottish Higher Still reform, one of the most systematic examples of this trend. It presents data from an Economic and Social Research Council-funded study which included case studies of schools and colleges, surveys of all secondary schools and colleges in Scotland, analyses of Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) data and interviews with key informants. Higher Still's climbing frame model of provision provided better learning opportunities for different types and levels of students, but its impact on attainment and parity of esteem were more limited. The article concludes that institutional barriers formed the biggest obstacles in the implementation phase, reflected in the contrasting 'institutional logics' of schools and colleges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most significant features of the educational reforms introduced since 1989 has been the emphasis on raising achievement levels. One of the dangers of this emphasis is that teachers and learners become instrumental in their approach to teaching and learning. Research on the creative mediation of policy shows that primary teachers appropriate reforms and adapt them to ensure a high level of learner involvement in learning. This pilot study of three Year 5 and 6 classes focuses on the creative teaching strategies used to maintain learner involvement in the wake of all the reforms of the 1990s. In particular, the study uses learner perspectives as a major part of the data set. The tentative conclusions are that the clarification of learning objectives with the learners and the reconstruction of appropriate creative learning contexts has had an effect in countering learner instrumentalism. These approaches were effective in developing learners' awareness of the learning process and enabled them to articulate perspectives concerning those processes. However, the study did not find much evidence of teachers incorporating these learner perspectives into their curriculum and pedagogic programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the implications of educational changes on teachers and schools in Great Britain. Impact of education Reform Act of 1988 and National Curriculum imposition; Experiences of Ensel and Coombes' teachers; Collective and individual effort of schools resisting changes; Features and politics of appropriation.

Explores how a primary headteacher in Great Britain had developed her own form of leadership in the face of changes from the introduction of the Education Reform Act and Local Management of Schools in 1988. Universalism as the chief characteristic of her role; Teacher's use of personal qualities in her work.

Looks at the future of education research in Great Britain. Issue of whether departments of educational studies can cope with the pressure generated by changes in higher education in Britain; Presence of defining purposes and values within the field; Relationship of research with theory.

Argues that the impact of educational changes on gatekeepers shapes their responses to access requests in educational settings for ethnography research. Difficulty in gaining entry; Need to develop a reflexivity informed by knowledge of structure and the micro-context in which their negotiations take place.

The article examines the link between idealism and education citing the education of the middle class during the late 19th and early 20th century in Great Britain from the perspective of an Oxford Idealist, Thomas Hill Green. Green has suggested a link between a complex technical philosophy and the concrete, prescriptive concerns of a generation of educational reformers. The Oxford Idealist movement were the authors of the so-called Anglo-Hegelianism that dominated the philosophy teaching and the moral atmosphere of Oxford University into the 20th century. Green highlighted a deficiency in education in the schools of the Middle Classes, either in private schools or decayed Grammar Schools.

The article discusses key issues concerning alternative educational procedures available to educational researchers in Great Britain in 1979. Key issues discussed include improvements in educational research both in conception and methods, the challenge of recognizing the specificity of education as a subject of investigation, the emergence of a new focus on the processes of education as the result of historical events following educational reforms and the development of new curricula and the issues' implications for educational research.