Centre for Teaching Excellence

Written by David Neale, Evonne Smith, Loren Rolinska & Karen Russell

SERA (the Scottish Educational Research Association) is a national network that brings together people involved in education across Scotland - teachers, school leaders, researchers, and others interested in improving practice. Its main purpose is to help share ideas, findings, and experiences that can support learning and teaching.

Just as Scotland has SERA, many other countries have their own national research associations. These groups are also connected to larger international networks such as:

• EERA – the European Educational Research Association
• AERA – the American Educational Research Association

These organisations hold conferences - usually once a year - where new research is presented, discussed, and debated. This is often the first place where researchers share their ideas before turning them into journal articles, book chapters, or other publications.

For teachers, this matters because the discussions that happen at these conferences help shape the evidence base that eventually informs policy, classroom practice, and professional learning. Researchers use feedback from peers and practitioners to refine their work, making it more relevant and useful for schools.

Being involved in SERA or attending its events can give teachers:

• Access to the latest research
• Opportunities to connect with others interested in similar issues
• A chance to share their own insights and experiences
• A way to contribute to national conversations about education in Scotland

Re-examining the everyday: equity, belonging, and what schools take for granted

On the second day of the SERA conference, Dr Rachel Shank from the University of Aberdeen, delivered a keynote on school uniforms, a topic that revealed profound cultural, structural, and emotional implications for educators across Scotland. Her research invites us as educators to examine practices that are so embedded in school life, they often escape scrutiny. It made us think about similar ‘hidden’ issues and the messages that school policies can send about identity, conformity, and community.

This theme of interrogating the everyday resurfaced in the Emotional Winds and Institutional Clouds presentation with Nicola Carse and colleagues, where the human consequences of policy decisions came sharply into focus. The session foregrounded lived experiences, highlighting the testimonials of families struggling under policy shifts, teachers navigating emotional labour, and pupils responding to systemic change. For Centre for Teaching Excellence’s Teacher Associates (TAs) attending, this was a powerful reminder that policy is never in isolation; it is always lived, felt and enacted at school level.

Leadership beyond hierarchy: relational, shared and system-aware

Another area of interest to us was the changes in leadership discourse. Making the Hidden Leader Visible with Zain Ul Abidin and colleagues reframed leadership as something enacted collectively rather than held by an individual. This view recognises the distributed expertise within teaching communities and positions leadership as a web of relationships built on trust, reciprocity, and shared responsibility.

Anna Jober’s examination of principal decision-making in Swedish schools highlighted the complexity leaders face when policy expectations and local realities collide. Despite differing national contexts, the parallels with Scotland were clear: raising attainment while nurturing wellbeing; responding to policy while honouring the nuances of their communities; making strategic decisions while holding the emotional weight of the profession. Teachers are navigating complex and often multiple pressures.

Equity, access and the realities of poverty in education

Equity was one of the most prominent and emotionally resonant themes across sessions. The Poverty and Education Network symposium raised critical questions about the affordability of schooling and the cumulative impact of ‘small’ costs that can become significant barriers for families. One TA shared that the session will directly influence their school’s strategy for uniform support, information-sharing on grants, and poverty-proofing initiatives.

Local voices on inclusion: insights from Glasgow practitioners

One of the most powerful sessions was the Glasgow-led inclusion panel, where practitioners discussed how language, relationships, and pupil voice shape the daily realities of inclusion. Whether examining the risks of deficit framing, the importance of listening to post-COVID pupil experiences, or the foundations of relationship-based achievement, the panellists brought authenticity and clarity to a complex topic. Their contributions reinforced the central notion that inclusion must be embedded in a school's everyday interactions, not only in its strategic plans.

Synthesising our experience of the conference

Across all reflections, the same themes were present:

• Collaboration as the foundation for sustainable change;
• Leadership as a collective, relational practice;
• Enquiry to interrogate the assumptions underpinning our everyday work;
• Equity as a moral obligation requiring continuous attention and action.

These themes reinforce the direction of the Centre’s work, whether through practitioner enquiry cycles, communities of practice, or opportunities for teachers to engage meaningfully with research. Our engagement with SERA did not simply offer new knowledge; it deepened our collective sense of purpose and clarified the values guiding our approach to professional learning.

As one TA noted, the conference brought not only ideas but momentum. The challenge now is to sustain this momentum across schools, classrooms, and networks, ensuring that the insights gained at the 2025 SERA conference in Aberdeen translate into meaningful change for teachers and learners across Scotland.

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First published: 17 February 2026