United we stand? Teaching unions and the separation of teachers in the divided education system of Northern Ireland

Abstract

Society in Northern Ireland can be characterised as being underpinned by an enduring cultural, religious and political divide between two dominant communities: Catholics and Protestants. The educational system largely reflects and contributes to the reproduction of this separation. Teachers are generally deployed in schools that are consistent with their community identity. Teaching is a very heavily unionised profession, but there has been very little research conducted into the manner in which the community divide has affected the character and composition of the unions that represent teachers in NI. This mixed method investigation addresses that gap in knowledge. It is revealed that although sectoral separation is a significant feature of the profile of union membership, there is considerable consensus with regard to the unions’ stance on the policies that maintain the pattern of teacher deployment. The composition of two unions in particular is ideogrammatic of the community division in education. It is noted however that a combination of economic, political and social factors has contributed to a pragmatic re-configuration of old alliances and rivalries. This realignment has the potential to ensure that teacher unions remain relevant and serve the needs of their members in a post-conflict society.

Keywords:

• teaching unions
• educational division
• Northern Ireland
• sectarianism

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to place on record his thanks to the teaching unions that assisted with this research so willingly and openly.

Notes

1 ATL retained its identity as a separate ‘section’ within NEU as until 1st January 2019 – all of the research detailed here took place before this date. I have therefore identified all results as relating to the ATL union.

2 A proportion of mainstream pupils attend Irish Medium schools (4272 or 1.3% of the total), or preparatory departments attached to non-denominational grammar schools (1660 or 0.5% of the total) – quantitative research data relating to those teaching in these sectors involved too few teachers to be considered statistically robust.

3 The 2017–18 report by the Certification Officer records that the teacher unions have, in combination, over thirty-two thousand members in NI. The GTCNI indicated that for the same period twenty-seven thousand teachers were registered. The membership of teacher unions therefore exceeds the number of registered teachers in NI by more than five thousand!

4 The ‘petition of concern’ is a veto that allows the political representatives of one community to vote down legislation that could disproportionately favour the other community.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Matthew Milliken

Dr. Matthew Milliken has extensive experience of working with children and young people in Northern Ireland. He has a professional track record of developing innovative, award-winning educational approaches to support the building of relationships across contested spaces and between divided communities in regions as diverse as Ireland, the Caucasus, Southern Africa, the Basque region, Poland and Germany. His current research interests lie in the policies, practices and perceptions that preserve educational segregation and militate against the establishment of a common system of schooling in Northern Ireland.