The experience of intergroup contact in primary-school ‘Shared Education’ classrooms: evidence from Northern Ireland

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of pupils and teachers within two primary school Shared Education partnerships in Northern Ireland; in particular, how intergroup contact is experienced within such contexts. A comparative, instrumental case study design was employed, which included document review, observation of Shared Education activities, interviews with school principals and teachers, and arts-based group interviews with children. While the paper supports existing research from secondary schools which suggests the potential of Shared Education to create spaces for building positive relations between pupils, the findings also highlighted several key issues which further extend understanding of Shared Education. Firstly, it emphasised the importance of planning, time and structure in Shared Education activity in order to dispel negativity and social awkwardness; secondly, it suggested the need for teachers to ‘model’ positive cross-group relations in their relationships between each other; and thirdly, it revealed a lack of clarity around how to deal with controversial issues as part of Shared Education activity. The paper concludes by suggesting that there is a need for additional guidance for schools around the intended aims and outcomes of Shared Education in relation to its potential to promote positive intergroup contact.

KEYWORDS:

• Shared education
• contact theory
• qualitative
• case study
• Northern Ireland

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the funders who enabled this research to be conducted and the staff and pupils of the schools who so generously gave their time to participate in this research. We would also like to thank the reviewers of this paper for their valuable comments and suggestions for improvement.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest nor any financial gain or other personal benefits arising from the application of this research.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, CD. The data are not publicly available as they contain information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.

Notes

1. In NI there are two primary education teacher training colleges. One of these (St Mary’s University College) is a Catholic higher education institution, and until September 2019, was the only teacher training college that offered the Certificate in Religious Education needed to work in a Catholic school in NI. As such, most Catholic teacher trainees have historically attended St Mary’s, and most Protestant teacher trainees have historically attended Stranmillis University College. According to Milliken (2019), 2% of teachers employed in Catholic primary schools are Protestant, while 7% of teachers in Controlled (de facto Protestant) primary schools are Catholic.

2. Partnership characteristics pertaining to school and pupil numbers and location of schools have been excluded to maintain confidentiality.

3. Principals from Mountain partnership have not been given identification labels in order to protect confidentiality, as there are few Shared Education partnerships that have more than two schools involved.

4. Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) is Ireland’s largest sporting organisation.

5. The Mountain partnership schools had used the Dr Seuss ‘The Butter Battle Book’ (1984) during a residential trip together to introduce and explore issues of conflict.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the Delivering Social Change Shared Education Signature Programme as part of a wider research project which sought to investigate why some Shared Education collaborations tend to generate improvements in reconciliation and education outcomes while others do not.

Notes on contributors

Caitlin Donnelly

Caitlin Donnelly is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Science Education and Social Work at QUB. She is interested in and has published in the field of education in divided societies and, in particular, how divided groups construct relations in school contexts.

Stephanie Burns

Stephanie Burns is a Research Fellow based at the Centre for Identity and Intergroup Relations at Queen’s. Her research crosses the fields of psychology, education and sociology. She is interested in issues of inclusion, identity and peacebuilding, and has evaluated interventions that seek to promote social cohesion in divided societies.