British Educational Research Journal最新文献

There have been debates about the quality and usefulness of education research for a long time, with opinion often dividing along methodological lines. Those on different sides of an apparent methodological schism often bemoan the lack of recognition and resources afforded to their chosen approach. Whatever one's position on the existence, or persistence, of education research's own version of the ‘paradigm wars’, it is nevertheless the case that research design and methods are central to its identity, its usefulness and the impact it makes upon society. This paper contributes to wider debates around the status of education research as a field, or discipline, by exploring the extent to which the research methods used by education researchers working in UK higher education, and beyond, have varied over the last 20 years. It reports the findings from a comparative analysis of two large-scale surveys—the ESRC-funded Research Capacity Building Network survey of 2002 and the BERA-funded Higher Education Research Census 2022. Both surveys explored the methods used by education researchers, mainly based in higher education, and took place against a backdrop of concern, from within and outside the field, about the quality and reach of its research. The findings show that education researchers draw from a variety of different methods and approaches but that the range of tools that they use has narrowed a lot over the period considered. Furthermore, there appears to be an increase in methodological polarisation, particularly between a minority who only use numbers in their research and a majority who never do. This is despite the considerable resources devoted to building research capacity to undertake numeric and combined research.

Following Russia's launch of a full-scale war against Ukraine in 2022, scholarship has not yet addressed how Ukrainian refugees in England have been navigating the challenges of developing their agency in pursuing opportunities to participate in the higher education (HE) sector. To address this gap, this paper thematically analyses 11 oral history interviews with Ukrainian refugees. The findings demonstrate that accessing and participating in the HE sector in a host community is a significantly complicated process not just for the (prospective) student population of Ukrainian refugees, as other studies about refugees highlight, but for academics too, despite special support measures. Unlike previous studies that emphasise the passive position of refugees, stripped of their agency, our findings highlight the active nature of Ukrainian refugees' limited agency. Pursuing participation in the HE sector becomes an active agency-seeking process, prompting refugees to craft ways to pull all available resources and connections far beyond the HE sector in the effort to overcome the constraints of their marginalised position with regard to access and effective participation in the HE sector. These findings are significant not only for addressing existing gaps in the literature on refugee agency and refugees in HE in general, as well as Ukrainian refugees in particular, but also for informing policymaking at the national and institutional levels in England and beyond. These findings highlight the effectiveness of current support measures for Ukrainian refugees in England and point to specific challenges related to the HE environment which require further policy interventions: recognition of prior qualifications, building social networks, utilising technology, enhanced English language support and financial assistance.

This paper reports on the findings of a natural experiment based on a sample of 1123 children aged 4–8 from the provinces of Punjab in Pakistan, and Gujarat in India. It looks at the impact of attendance (or not) in early schooling on the cognitive and social–emotional development of young children. The role of school attendance was assessed over 1 year. Children and their families were assessed twice, in or near their village homes. The study confirmed that all children progressed in learning regardless of school attendance. The overall impact of schooling is clear but relatively small. Children who attended school over the year showed greater gains in numeracy and especially in social and emotional learning, which appear to be harder than literacy to pick up outside school. Parents and children offered a range of reasons for non-attendance, including safety at home for girls, household poverty and a perception that school will not matter for their child's envisaged future. The study therefore raises a variety of issues for central and local governments to address if they want to create a school system suitable for all citizens.

This article utilises data obtained through evaluation processes at Northumbria University to contribute to the emerging discourse on widening participation and outward student mobility. The rationale behind the study stems from the significant financial and non-financial benefits associated with higher education and the UK's ongoing efforts to enhance social mobility through increased access to higher education. The study draws on a questionnaire, reflective video diaries, and interviews with outward student mobility participants from diverse widening participation backgrounds. The questionnaire (N = 24) was distributed before and after participation, while reflective video diaries (N = 28) and interviews (N = 32) provided subsequent insights. Data were analysed using a simplified template analysis of successes, challenges and opportunities. Findings show that outward student mobility fosters amplified personal and professional growth across students from widening participation backgrounds. Notably, participation in outward student mobility was not deterred by the COVID-19 pandemic or global conflicts, demonstrating the strong motivation and resilience of these students. However, financial constraints emerged as a major barrier, exacerbated by the need to balance part-time work and academic responsibilities. The study highlights the importance of enhanced communication strategies, detailed budgeting guides and tailored mental health services to support participants. Despite these challenges, the resilience of students from widening participation backgrounds underscores the transformative potential of outward student mobility, suggesting that targeted interventions can further enhance its inclusivity and effectiveness.

The role of artificial intelligence (AI) in education plays a crucial role in teacher training digitalisation. Although AI has enormous potential, not much is known about how pre-service teachers perceive and utilise AI tools in professional practice. Hence, this study, guided by the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology framework, investigates pre-service English as a foreign language teachers’ experiences using MagicSchool, an AI-based educational tool, to design exam questions, aiming to explore how AI tools can enhance assessment practices in teacher education. Participants were 27 fourth-year pre-service teachers. Data for this case study were collected through semi-structured interviews and reflective reports and subsequently subjected to thematic analysis. The findings reveal that MagicSchool improved time efficiency and reinforced the creation of various question types. Participants also mentioned its practicality in generating rubrics and materials for varied proficiency levels. However, challenges such as crafting effective prompts, verifying content and addressing cultural or contextual mismatches were recognised. Moreover, ethical concerns, such as plagiarism and minimised creativity, were highlighted, with participants warning against over-reliance on AI. The study underscores the potential of AI in exam preparation while emphasising challenges, advocating for a balanced approach that integrates AI responsibly. Implications for teacher education include fostering AI literacy, promoting critical engagement with AI-generated content and ensuring ethical and pedagogically sound implementation in assessment design.

The observed decline in academic performance among 15-year-old students, as reported by recent OECD-PISA surveys, alongside the democratisation of university admissions, points to a potential decrease in the marginal academic proficiency of incoming higher education students. Paradoxically, grades at the tertiary level have either remained stable or risen, suggesting the presence of grade inflation, i.e. a relaxation in grading standards. This trend may have been amplified by the ‘tolerance’ or ‘grade leniency’ requested during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper explores three key areas: first, the existence and degree of grade inflation from 2012 to 2022; second, whether the pandemic exacerbated this inflation; and third, the effect of lenient grading on student outcomes, including pass rates, exam participation, graduation likelihood and dropout rates. Drawing on data from 28,520 students across 2000 courses at a major European university with an open admission policy, panel data fixed effects models reveal an average modest trend of grade of inflation (around 0.012–0.024 standard deviations), which significantly accelerated during the pandemic years, with increases reaching nearly 10 times the usual rate. A Coarsened Exact Matching analysis, used to account for shifts in student demographics and abilities over time, shows significant differences between weak (i.e. individuals with an average number of retake exams above 1.5 or bottom 40% of the grade distribution) and strong students (i.e. average number of retake exams below 1.2 or top 35% of the grade distribution). Grade inflation primarily benefited weaker students, while stronger ones remain unaffected.

Parental engagement with children's learning is strongly linked with improved outcomes for children and has thus become a major focus of educational policy around the world. Yet to date, there has been little scrutiny of how parental engagement is positioned within policy documents, nor how this relates to parental engagement practices. This paper analyses the positioning of parental engagement in England's current national educational policy landscape. Through applying Taylor's et al.'s (1997) policy analysis framework, we identify seemingly inconsistent conceptualisations of parental engagement appearing across different policy documents. This may explain the apparent mismatch between the types of parental engagement supported by research and those being implemented in schools. The analysis also highlights a lack of focus on equity in relation to parental engagement policy statements. We recommend that the Department for Education work with other stakeholders—including parents, teachers, teacher educators, school leaders and researchers—to produce a clearly articulated vision for parental engagement, which could be used to ensure a coherent approach across policies. Furthermore, we suggest an explicit focus on engaging all parents. Without this, the potential of parental engagement for improving children's outcomes and narrowing attainment gaps is unlikely to be realised.

Teachers’ beliefs in their ability to positively impact students’ learning outcomes has become a strong indicator of teachers’ motivation and behaviour towards the instructional strategies they employ. However, measuring the broader concept of teacher self-efficacy is still somewhat problematic as current scales are dated, have measurement problems, and are not theoretically sound. This paper proposes a new theoretically and rigorously developed scale of teacher self-efficacy that meets current teaching standards and is validated and tested through two phases. This new teacher self-efficacy scale will hopefully greatly facilitate and advance this elusive theoretical construct.

This paper considers the views and experiences of local authority professionals in the policy context of the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Code of Practice (CoP) in the youth justice system in England, focusing on the resettlement transition. Resettlement is the period after a young person has been released from prison, during which time they receive support to facilitate rehabilitation from offending—including transitions back into education. It is a complex period of transition, presenting both challenges and opportunities. The youth justice population, and the resettlement cohort in particular, exhibit a wide array of needs and SEND are endemic. Despite this, the relationship between education, resettlement and SEND is largely unexplored. This paper reports on qualitative research, involving semi-structured interviews with professionals (n = 30) from youth justice agencies and education providers, across three English local authorities. The main findings are that the SEND CoP is broadly ineffective at supporting the resettlement population due to issues of funding, resource availability and difficult inter-agency relationships, but also has empowering potential which could be further leveraged and explored. These findings highlight that the CoP exists in a complex arena of practice and policy, involving the intersection of local and national factors. Theoretically informed implications of the CoP and its implementation are also discussed, including the roles of stigma and organisational culture in shaping the implementation of the CoP in the local authorities studied.

Nature-based learning environments for early childhood are expanding, as is research into their affordances and pedagogies. Engineering in these environments is not well studied. Previous work considered engineering experiences through the lens of ‘designerly play’, finding that natural materials, the space for larger creations and constructions, the altered group dynamics and less gendered environments, promote engineering play. Other engineering frameworks have not been applied. In this study, we have identified ways in which preschool-aged children engage with Engineering Habits of Mind while at forest nursery and bush kinder. Ethnographic and video data from two Scottish forest nurseries and two Australian bush kinders have been collected and with our vignettes, we have shown that young children readily engage with all six Engineering Habits of Mind in a variety of different play scenarios when in natural learning environments. As well as demonstrating the benefits of forest nursery and bush kinder to young children's engineering learning, our examples can be used to guide educators looking for ways to increase engineering play in other learning contexts.