Venue: Napier University, Edinburgh

Dates: 18th to 19th November 2026

All proposals to be sent to conference@gmail.com by Friday, 15^th May 2026

Conference Theme

Living Our Research: Agency, Culture, and the Pursuit of Equity in Education

We invite researchers and practitioners working in Scottish, UK and international contexts to share their insights under the theme of Living our Research: Agency, Culture and the Pursuit of Equity in Education. Building on previous SERA conference themes, this conference envisions a community of educators, scholars, and leaders who translate research and apply this meaningfully to practice. Grounded in agency, sustained by culture, and driven by social justice, this conference centres equity not as aspiration but as action. Together, we are committed to raising the quality of educational research by supporting intellectual excellence, methodological rigour, and meaningful engagement with the lived realities of our universities, colleges, schools and communities.

We invite educators, researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and graduate students to submit proposals that explore how research informs, challenges, and transforms practice.

The following guiding questions from practical, conceptual, and empirical perspectives offer a starting point for all potential delegates:

• How can educational research be lived, embodied, and enacted in practice within classrooms, institutions, and communities?
• In what ways do educators, learners, and leaders exercise agency to shape educational cultures, practices, and systems?
• How do cultural, institutional, and social contexts influence how research is produced, interpreted, and applied in education?
• How can research help move equity in education from aspiration to action, addressing persistent inequalities in access, participation, and outcomes?
• What forms of collaboration between researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and communities most effectively transform evidence into meaningful change?
• Which methodological approaches best capture the complexity of lived educational experiences while maintaining rigor and ethical integrity?
• How can practitioner inquiry, participatory research, and co-creation empower educators and learners as knowledge producers?
• What possibilities for more equitable educational futures emerge when research, culture, and professional practice are closely connected?

We welcome proposals that address:

• Educator agency and leadership for equity
• Culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogies
• Research-practice partnerships
• Social justice frameworks in action
• Embodied and reflective professional practice
• Excellence redefined through equity-centred lenses
• Community-engaged scholarship
• Transformative policy and systems change

SERA 2026 Conference Strands

Key organising strands for this year’s SERA conference will be:

• Globalisation, Governance and the Politics of Education
• Curriculum Transformation and Education for Sustainability
• Digital Technologies and Pedagogical Innovation
• Equity, Access and Inclusive Education
• Professional, Community and Vocational Learning Practices
• Historical and Theoretical Foundations of Education

The conference will accept individual papers, symposia, short presentations and poster presentations as well as suggestions for roundtable discussions, workshops and performance/arts-based sessions. More information on these formats can be found here.

SERA Conference Fund

The SERA Conference Support Fund is specifically for attendance at SERA’s own annual conference. This fund does not provide support for attendance at other conferences or events.

SERA supports those unable to secure funding by providing a small number of free or reduced-price places at the annual conference. SERA does not provide grants or financial support for travel costs or expenses.

You can be considered if:

1. You are self-funding and not attached to an institution or organisation and have no sponsor.
2. You are a new researcher or new member of staff who has limited access to institutional support to attend and present at conferences, and your institution has refused to support you.
3. You are part of a team that would like to present as a group, and the total conference fee is not cost-effective.
4. You have circumstances that make it difficult or impossible to attend the conference at full cost.

Find out more about the SERA Conference Fund here.

Prizes and Awards 

Estelle Brisard Award. This award is presented on an annual basis to the best research paper written by an early-career researcher based in Scotland. The cash prize of £250 is presented at the annual conference. Further details can be found on our webpages and through posts on our LinkedIn account. To apply, please send your name, email address, area of research, course, university and title of your paper to sera.conference@gmail.com.

 Best poster/short presentation. Two prizes of fifty pounds are awarded at the SERA conference for the best poster and best short presentation. A panel composed of SERA executive members will review the entries and the winning entries will be announced during the conference.

SERA Submission Dates

• Call for proposals opens Monday 6^th April 2026
• All proposals to be sent to conference@gmail.com by Friday 15^th May 2026
• Peer review of abstracts will be completed by the end of June 2026
• Notification of acceptance will be given on or before the week beginning Monday, 27th July 2026

SERA Conference Registration Arrangements

SERA Conference registration will open from early May 2026.