What does it mean to be a research-informed teacher? And does a quiet pupil necessarily mean a disengaged one?
These were among the questions explored by two members of Bolton School staff at the British Educational Research Association (BERA) Annual Conference 2026, held from 8th to 10th September at the University of Manchester.
Helen Bradford-Keegan, Foundation Head of Educational Research and Innovation and Head of the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI), and Mags Ryder, Head of Art and Head of Year in the Boys’ Division, both presented research with direct relevance to classroom practice.
BERA is the UK’s leading authority on educational research and its annual conference brings together researchers, teachers and education professionals to share new thinking and consider how research can inform education.
Helen presented as part of a symposium with Dr Richard Davies, Dr David Aldridge and Dr Janet Orchard titled ‘Thirty Years On: Revisiting Hargreaves and the Promise of a Research-Based Teaching Profession’.
The symposium revisited a challenge first set out 30 years ago by educationalist and Old Boy of the School Professor David Hargreaves (Class of 1957), who called for teaching to become a more research-informed profession.
Helen’s paper focused particularly on the value of in-school research development and the infrastructure needed to support it, giving the symposium a particularly fitting Bolton School connection.
It also considered what it really means for teachers to engage with research, looking beyond summaries of evidence or ready-made answers to the role of theory in helping educators interpret the complexity of classroom practice.
Reflecting on the discussion, Helen said: ‘It sharpened my thinking about the vital role of theory in helping us interpret the complexity of educational practice. A genuinely research-informed profession should cultivate this critical curiosity.’
This approach sits at the heart of the CERI, which brings together research, theory and classroom practice across Bolton School. Through professional enquiry, staff research and work on the School’s Teaching and Learning Framework, the CERI supports colleagues to question, test and refine their practice, with a clear focus on pupils’ experience of learning.
Mags approached classroom practice from a different direction with her presentation, ‘Rethinking Quietness’, drawing on her research as she approaches submission of her doctorate.
Her work questions a familiar classroom assumption: that the pupils who speak most are necessarily those who are most engaged.
Mags describes classroom quietness as ‘supplemental, interconnected with voice and an indicator of both participation and confidence’.
Her research explores whether educational and societal perceptions of quietness reflect pupils’ own experiences. Her published work, The Quiet Learner of the UK Art Classroom, challenges the idea that quietness should automatically be interpreted as disengagement.
Instead, her research considers the relationship between quietness, voice, participation and belonging, and asks whether classrooms can make space for different ways of thinking, contributing and being heard.
Helen and Mags’ presentations shared an underlying question: how can looking more closely at what happens in classrooms improve our understanding of teaching and learning?
Their work forms part of a wider culture of enquiry across Bolton School. Mags is one of several colleagues currently undertaking PhD research, while many others are leading smaller-scale research projects through the CERI. Insights from these individual enquiries feed back into shared thinking about education, curriculum and classroom practice across the School, helping colleagues to develop their understanding of teaching and pupils’ learning.
The School’s commitment to educational research is also reflected in the support given to colleagues to undertake their own enquiries and in the work of the CERI to connect that research with professional practice across the Foundation.
Philip Britton, Head of Foundation, said: "There is a wonderful full circle here between Helen’s role at Bolton School, placing research firmly within our classroom practice, and the ideas of Bolton School alumnus Professor David Hargreaves.
‘The work that Helen and Mags have shared at BERA is also part of something much wider at Bolton School. Through the CERI, we want colleagues to have the opportunity and support to pursue research, to ask thoughtful questions about education and to bring what they learn back into the classroom. That commitment to enquiry helps us continue to develop our teaching and the education we provide for our pupils.
‘It is also especially fitting that, 30 years on, we are engaging with ideas put forward by one of our own Old Boys. It is another reminder of the contribution our Alumni continue to make within their professions and to wider society."
Thirty years after Professor Hargreaves called for teaching to become a more research-informed profession, Helen and Mags’ contributions at BERA demonstrate how research continues to shape thinking about teaching and learning at Bolton School
