‘Promoting and sustaining high-quality educational research’: the role of Scottish Education Research Association (SERA

• Speakers: Stephen McKinney (University of Glasgow), Stuart Hall (University of Glasgow), Kevin Lowden (University of Glasgow), Stella Mouroutsou (University of Stirling), Elizabeth Black (University of Glasgow)
• Chairpersons: Stephen Day, Céline Healy
• When: 00 SES 06 / Wednesday, 23/Aug/2023: 1:30pm - 3:00pm
• Location: James McCune Smith, 438AB [Floor 4]

As Dominic Wyse pointed out in his BERA Blog (Wyse, 2020) educational research in Scotland, as in other parts of the UK, has been criticised as being relatively weak in comparison to research from other disciplines. He also notes that some of the criticisms for this ‘weakness’ is due to education not being seen as an academic discipline (Wyse, 2020). We would reject this criticism because for almost 50 years, the Scottish Educational Research Association (SERA) has championed the need for high-quality educational research in Scotland. From its early days in the mid-1970s, the fundamental tenets of SERA have been to "(i)…disseminate research findings on as wide a basis as possible and (ii) to improve communication among those working in different areas of the research field" (Nisbet, 1984). Fifty years on, we are proud that these tenets, while slightly revised for the current age, continue to remain at the core of the present-day SERA and remain as part of our overall purpose: ‘Working for the improvement of education through promoting and sustaining high-quality educational research’.  We would argue that our reach and engagement as an association has grown considerably, with SERA enjoying strong partnerships with our sister associations in the UK and Ireland as well as being an established member of both the European Educational Research Association (EERA) and the World Educational Research Association (WERA).   

The principal vehicle of discussion and dissemination of our work has always been the annual SERA Conference, attracting a broad church of academic researchers, practitioners, policy makers and those in local and national government positions and encouraging them to contribute to and participate in high-quality discussions around education and educational research. Since the early days of the Association, SERA has evolved, moving from a one-day conference to a three-day event which attracts high numbers of delegates each year.   

The events of 2020 and the subsequent effects of the global pandemic did bring challenges to SERA, but also afforded opportunities, particularly through digital technology.  The value of technology, particularly in facilitating professional learning communities, had been noted well before the pandemic (see Blitz, 2013), however, until this time it was arguably a resource with untapped potential. The pandemic also gave room for the Executive to reflect upon the democratic nature of educational research and how best we, as an Association, seek to a) meet the aims of our association and b) foster an increased sense of community within educational research in Scotland and beyond. Central to these reflections and critical discussions have been the SERA Networks who actively and adeptly identify and capitalise on opportunities to influence policy and practice.    

Another contributor to this evolution is our SERA Networks, nine special interest groups with a range of foci on ‘hot topics’ in educational research nationally and internationally. Our Networks have always been strong proponents of the work of SERA and its charitable aims but truly came to the fore during the pandemic. 

This symposium aims to highlight the current hot topics in Scottish education by sharing the work of three of our SERA Networks: Inclusive Education, Poverty and Early Years. These three papers will illustrate the ways in which our SERA colleagues are able to engage SERA members in deep and critical discussions but also look to influence policy and practice. The symposium is framed through the perspective of working together through partnerships and will also look to explore potential next steps which can be taken by SERA.