ESCalate at BERA 2011

There was a great buzz this year at the annual conference of the British Educational Research Association, which met at the Institution of Education, University of London from 6th to 8th September.  Nearly 1000 delegates turned up, including some 300 from overseas.  Highlights included a keynote lecture by Baroness Onora O'Neill on 'intelligent accountability', which discussed the potential distorting effects of accountability systems and the importance of retaining trust and commitment.  The relevance of this was picked up by ESCalate's Director, Andrew Pollard, when he introduced the panel of the Research Excellence Framework to the conference.  There was discussion of how powerful, centrally-managed initiatives must be so careful in going about their business. Some have been concerned about the policies of the Higher Education Academy in this respect - but BERA was also an occasion when ESCalate was able to welcome Kathy Wright, the HEA's new lead on Education.  Kathy was introduced to senior representatives of many education associations, including SRHE, BERA, BESA and FACE, and to colleagues from the four countries of the UK who have worked with ESCalate.  The subject centre also sponsored two poster competitions and Andrew Pollard presented the prize winners prior to the Presidential Lecture by Professor Mary James.  She too argued that there need to be more alliances within our subject community. ESCalate's publications, made available at this event, simply flew off the shelves.  Overall then, BERA 2011 was a considerable showcase for research in the fields of Education and Teacher Education and ESCalate was delighted to have taken part - albeit for the last time.