Institute for Research in Education (IREd)

Co-Directors of IREd: Professor Uvanney Maylor and Professor Janice Wearmouth

Underpinning our education system is a focus on knowledge acquisition and the 'need to know' which, historically, has driven assessment practice and determined pedagogy and teaching. Included in the University’s research strategy is the intention that a characteristic feature of much of our research will be that it is applicable to the professions we engage with, contributes to the work of colleagues in practice, and informs public policy. Consonant with this intention, the research interests of IREd members lie at the interface between theory and practice and reflect the inter-relationship between views of learning and of knowledge, and how they relate to policy, pedagogy, assessment and the specified curriculum. Within the concepts of knowledge, learning, policy, pedagogy, the curriculum and assessment the major umbrella research focus of IREd that binds all its members’ research interests together is social justice, that is, research that is intended to recognise individual educational identities whilst enhancing the future lives of those associated with education and producing more equitable outcomes.

The research expertise of IREd’s members - who are drawn primarily, though not exclusively, from the Schools of Education and English, Teacher Education, and the Academy for Learning and Teaching Excellence - is interdisciplinary, combining psychological, sociological, historical, philosophical and professional frameworks. We are particularly interested in educational research that engages with issues of social justice (broadly construed).

An overview of past activities in IRED can be found in our research newsletters, available at IRED - Newsletter

The Institute is also host to the Bedfordshire branch of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain (PESGB) led by Dr Neil Hopkins who has been a member of PESGB for four years. The branch holds monthly meetings which are open to the public. Dr Oliver Belas is the editor of the PESGB’s Blog – a platform for presenting research-informed, short-form work on philosophy and education (both broadly defined). The Blog is open to submissions from all, of which there are three types; regular posts, short book reviews and long-form posts. Further details and guidelines for submission can be found on the PESGB Blog