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4 December 2025

By Hans Svennevig, UCL Institute of Education, with Sera Shortland, Mackenzie Dawson-Hunt and Tania Malik

Votes at 16, a manifesto commitment of the current Labour government, brings in an increase in voter franchise in England. Campaigns to increase the franchise to 16- and 17-year-olds have been around for some time, and this policy brings England in line with Scotland, which has had the right since 2015 and Wales since 2017 (in each case with voter registration starting at age 14). Northern Ireland looks set to follow in 2027.

As educators, we believe the best way to make this reform meaningful is to have high quality Citizenship education. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer agrees, as does the recently announced Curriculum and Assessment Review report and the government’s response to it. These reforms and the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, requiring academies to follow the National Curriculum, will help improve Citizenship education. Research from a range of academics, including Germ Janmaat at the IOE, or colleagues at the Association for Citizenship Teaching, Middlesex University, Nottingham Trent University and the Royal Holloway University highlight the value of this provision. (more…)

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27 November 2025

By Joseph Mintz, Gayoung Choi and Jianing Zhou

As educators, we routinely reflect on how to respond to and meet diverse learner needs within our classrooms. But do we also see and value the knowledge and experiences that students bring with them? Engaging with that question means looking at ourselves, our own backgrounds, experiences and perspectives, and thinking about how those shape what and how we teach. This is especially so when our backgrounds differ from those of many of our students. (more…)

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25 November 2025

By John White

At the heart of the Curriculum and Assessment Review Final Report, Building a world-class curriculum for all, is the claim that the curriculum should be ‘knowledge-rich’ and ‘centred on powerful knowledge’. The government response endorses this, using the same two expressions. These terms were also used, in the same closely related way, in an address on ‘The importance of a knowledge-rich curriculum’ by the former Schools Minister, Nick Gibb, in 2021.

The idea that the curriculum should be rich in knowledge and based on powerful knowledge has been around since the Gove reforms of the earlier part of the last decade. How far will it shape curriculum policy in the last half of this one? (more…)

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20 November 2025

By Carol Vincent

Brexit, migration and the Israel/Palestine conflict are just three issues that have saturated public debate and generated polarised reactions in recent times. Meanwhile, young people in particular are increasingly receiving their news through social media (Internet Matters 2025), and research suggests that, although the relationship is complex, social media does play a role in aggravating ‘destructive’ polarisation (Esau et al 2024). (more…)

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13 November 2025

By Nicola Walshe

Thirty years ago, as a doctoral student in glaciology, I travelled to Iceland to undertake fieldwork for my PhD. My research focused on the hydrology of glaciers, specifically, using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to investigate the pathways and behaviour of meltwater within and beneath the ice. Effectively, I was mapping the hidden ‘plumbing’ through which meltwater travels. Understanding glacial water flow is crucial as it influences glacier motion, stability and runoff, with implications for both glaciological theory and water resource management.

Alongside fellow doctoral students from the University of Leeds, I spent two consecutive summers camping at the foot of Falljökull (which translates directly to ‘falling glacier’ in Icelandic), an outlet glacier of the Vatnajökull ice cap in South Iceland. Each day for five weeks we re-ran the same routine: hike onto the glacier, collect data, return to camp, eat, sleep, repeat. Over time, Falljökull became more than a research site; it was a companion – dynamic, unpredictable, and alive. The icefall, where the glacier descends steeply from Vatnajökull, loomed in the distance – mystical, terrifying and unreachable.

Fast forward three decades, and much of my professional life now centres on climate change and sustainability education – research, practice and policy. And this October, I returned to Iceland for the first time since my final field season, all those years ago. Accompanied by my family, I was driven by a promise I’d made to myself: to one day revisit Falljökull, to share its beauty (and a glimpse of my former life) with my teenage children, and to confront, with trepidation, the impact of climate change on this once-familiar landscape. (more…)

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4 November 2025

By Mary Bousted, Honorary Professor, UCL

October saw the launch in the House of Lords of the Teaching Commission’s report Shaping the Future of Education. I presented the Commission’s analysis on the state of the teaching profession and proposals to improve the profession’s standing.

The teacher and leader members of the Commission, working alongside policy and research professionals brought the reality of the challenges facing teachers and school leaders into strong contact with the research evidence in a way that is highly illuminating and powerful. The report is the most comprehensive source of evidence on the state of the profession available. (more…)

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23 October 2025

By Yana Manyukhina

The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Education recently launched a call for evidence into the loss of children’s “love of learning” across the UK. It reflects growing concern about what many educators have observed: that increasing anxiety, falling attendance and assessment-driven pressures are eroding curiosity and joy in learning.

At the same time, England’s Curriculum and Assessment Review, led by Professor Becky Francis, is examining whether the national curriculum is fit for purpose in a rapidly changing world. Its interim report acknowledges deep tensions in current practice, from narrow accountability systems to limited teacher autonomy, and calls for a curriculum that is “rich and broad, inclusive, and innovative”. (more…)

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21 October 2025

By Wilton Lodge

In recognition of Black History Month, this reflection explores what it means to engage in racially just research and scholarship. Drawing on the works of Du Bois, Fanon and Tuhiwai Smith, it considers how power, history and epistemic privilege shape knowledge production. Through three key shifts – adopting racially just epistemologies, practising reflexivity and rejecting deficit models – I invite educators to reimagine scholarship as a space for justice. (more…)

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8 October 2025

By Norbert Pachler, Zhu Hua and Wendy Ayres-Bennett and Charles Forsdick, University of Cambridge

Language education in school has significant transformational potential in terms of learners’ right to a well-rounded education and the enhancement of their life chances, as well as their ability to lead a fulfilling life and make a meaningful contribution to society. With a view to realising this vision for all children and young people, the DfE’s Curriculum and Assessment Review (CAR) provides a welcome opportunity to reassess the place of language education in primary and secondary schools. (more…)

Credit: Mat Wright for UCL IOE.

4 September 2025

By Kate Greer, Justin Dillon, Alison Kitson and Nicola Walshe

You might think that, by now, teachers who want to incorporate climate change and sustainability into their lessons would be able to access a plethora of subject-specific, tried and tested professional development. But you’d be wrong. In fact, while NGOs, subject associations and the learned societies (among many others) have been developing resources for many years, there are few easily accessible, subject-specific courses available to help teachers in England address these issues. (more…)