Joanne Hughes
Biographic Data
| ID | 3655872 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Joanne Hughes |
| GIVEN NAMES | Joanne |
| FAMILY NAME | Hughes |
| SIGNATURE | HUGHES J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Queen's University Belfast |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2791-4817 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 44 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 311 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 44 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1994 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
The educational response to ethnic and cultural diversity in transitional Northern Ireland: A critical review of policy and research
Ethnic diversity has increased substantially in Northern Ireland’s schools over the past two decades, with statistics showing that the number of minority ethnic pupils doubled between 2013 and 2023. In this article, we examine how two features of education in Northern Ireland, the school system and the curriculum, have responded to this greater ethnic and cultural diversity. Adopting the lens of critical multicultural education to review relevant…
‘They Take the Mum Off You When You Come In’: An Ethnographic Study of Parent Experiences of Medicines Safety Systems in English Hospitals
INTRODUCTION: Medication safety in healthcare settings is a persistent problem, and children may be at greater risk of harm than adults. Most existing research examining medication safety for hospitalised children is from the perspective of healthcare professionals and organisations. This study aimed to ethnographically explore parent and staff perspectives on the role of parents in medication safety in the paediatric hospital setting. METHODS: 2…
Equality of Condition? Exploring Minority Ethnic Group Experiences of Education in Northern Ireland
The period since the signing of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement in 1998 has seen an exponential rise in inward migration to Northern Ireland, with around 8% of the school-age population now comprising children and young people from minority ethnic groups. In this paper, we examine the experiences of families from minority backgrounds, including recent migrants and those from generations previously settled in Northern Ireland, as they navigate s…
Shared education: A case study in social cohesion
Adopting a social cohesion framework, we consider how the shared education model in Northern Ireland reflects distributive, ideational and relational dimensions of social cohesion, and the processes through which its implementation may be contributing to a more socially cohesive society. We use this case study to reflect on the current conceptualisation of social cohesion in the literature and to argue for dynamic and interdependent connections b…
Humanizing harm: Using a restorative approach to heal and learn from adverse events
BACKGROUND: Healthcare is not without risk. Despite two decades of policy focus and improvement efforts, the global incidence of harm remains stubbornly persistent, with estimates suggesting that 10% of hospital patients are affected by adverse events. METHODS: We explore how current investigative responses can compound the harm for all those affected-patients, families, health professionals and organizations-by neglecting to appreciate and respo…
Shared education as a contact-based intervention to improve intergroup relations among adolescents in postconflict Northern Ireland
Past research has shown that intergroup contact can be a promising intervention to improve intergroup relations and that contact-based interventions might be most effective during adolescence. In postconflict Northern Ireland, widespread residential segregation and a largely separate school system limit opportunities for intergroup contact between adolescents from the Catholic and Protestant communities. We evaluated whether a large-scale interve…
Is academic selection in Northern Ireland a barrier to social cohesion
Northern Ireland has a deeply divided education system with demarcation most notable along ethno/religious and social class lines. The former is largely attributable to the historical organisation of the schools estate based on religion, and the latter is associated with a system of academic selection that filters children into grammar and non-selective post-primary schools according to their performance in tests taken during the final year of pr…
Teaching about the past in Northern Ireland: Avoidance, neutrality, and criticality
Citizenship education has been a feature of the school curricula in many western democracies since the 1990s. Consequently, there is a proliferation of research which explores its efficacy in instilling political literacy and encouraging democratic engagement amongst pupils. Less is known however about how citizenship is taught in societies emerging from conflicts which are [at least in part] motivated by competing narratives around citizenship. …
Caring for a sick or injured child during the Covid‐19 pandemic lockdown in 2020 in the UK: An online survey of parents' experiences
BACKGROUND: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the first UK lockdown (March to May 2020) witnessed a dramatic reduction in children presenting to primary/emergency care, creating concern that fear of the virus was resulting in children presenting late. METHODS: An online survey was co-developed with UK parents to understand the impact of the lockdown on parents' help-seeking for, and care of, their sick/injured child(ren). The survey was advertised th…
By law, custom or local atmosphere’: Exploring institutional support in school‐based contact programmes
Allport’s intergroup contact theory outlines four conditions for effective contact: equal status between participants within the contact situation, cooperation, common goals and institutional support. While the literature indicates that institutional support may be a particularly important condition for effective contact, its role and impact remain under‐researched, particularly in studies of contact within real‐world contexts. This article seeks…
Community Relations in Northern Ireland: Attitudes to Contact and Integration
This chapter provides a resume of the macro-political context over the period. It outlines the nature of community relations chiefly in terms of policy, legislative and infrastructural developments before offering an assessment of community relations in Northern Ireland. The chapter considers evidence from the Northern Ireland Social Attitudes surveys conducted in 1989 and 1996. From 1987, a sustained twin-track approach to resolving Northern Ire…
Integrating Northern Ireland: Cross‐group friendships in integrated and mixed schools
While Northern Ireland strives to build a shared society, the current reality is that everyday experiences are still shaped by division along ethno‐religious lines. This is particularly pronounced in the education system, where more than 92% of pupils attend separate schools. Within the predominantly separate education system, however, exists a small collection of schools which cater to a more heterogeneous pupil body and offer the opportunity fo…
Interpretations of national identity in post-conflict Northern Ireland: A comparison of different school settings
It is generally accepted that education has a significant role to play in any society transitioning from conflict to a more peaceful dispensation. Indeed, some have argued that the education system potentially represents the single most effective agent of social change with the capacity to bridge ethnic division in conflict affected countries. Despite the potential, educational policy-makers grapple with the dilemma as to precisely how school sys…
Balancing Cultural Diversity and Social Cohesion in Education: The Potential of Shared Education in Divided Contexts
This article considers how the education systems of divided societies have been shaped in response to the experience of ethnic and religious conflict. The analysis identifies two competing priorities in such contexts – the development of social cohesion and the protection of cultural, ethnic and religious identities – and explores how these may be reconciled through a model of ‘shared education’. Drawing on research evidence and recent experience…
Caught in the conundrum: Neoliberalism and education in post-conflict Northern Ireland – Exploring shared education
Northern Ireland (NI) is emerging from a violent period in its troubled history and remains a society characterized by segregation between its two main communities. Nowhere is this more apparent than in education, where for the most part Catholic and Protestant pupils are educated separately. During the last 30 years there has been twofold pressure placed on the education system in NI – at one level to respond to intergroup tensions by promoting …
Building Trust in a Postconflict Society: An Integrative Model of Cross-group Friendship and Intergroup Emotions
Across one longitudinal and two cross-sectional surveys in Northern Ireland, we tested a model of intergroup relations in which out-group attitudes and behavioral tendencies are predicted by cross-group friendship and positive intergroup appraisals, mediated by intergroup emotions and out-group trust. In study 1, out-group friendship at time 1 predicted out-group trust at time 2 (one year later), controlling for prior out-group trust. In study 2,…
Plugging the gap’: Shared education and the promotion of community relations through schools in Northern Ireland
Although there is no consensus among educationalists as to the role schools play as drivers of hostilities in divided societies, there is broad agreement that they can facilitate more positive intergroup relations. In Northern Ireland the promotion of school based intergroup contact has been offered as a means through which this can happen. Until 2007, the approach was twofold, reflected on the one hand in short‐term contact opportunities for pup…
Contact and context: Sharing education and building relationships in a divided society
One approach to tackling problems of division in society has been to promote collaboration and engagement between schools separated on ethno-religious lines. Based on some variant of contact theory, the received wisdom is that inter-group encounters can contribute to prejudice reduction and promote more harmonious relationships. Evidence to support this analysis is convincing; however, relatively little is known about the environmental factors th…
Shared Education Initiatives in N orthern I reland: A Model for Effective Intergroup Contact in Divided Jurisdictions
As Northern Ireland transitions from violence to sustainable peace, one area in particular that remains deeply divided is the parallel education system that operates for C atholic and P rotestant pupils. Working within the existing system of separate education, and underpinned by contact theory, the S haring E ducation P rogramme ( SEP ) was launched in 2007 to deliver shared classes for pupils from the different sectors. While SEP is a relativel…
It's never too late for 'us' to meet 'them: Prior intergroup friendships moderate the impact of later intergroup friendships in educational settings
Background. In this paper, we focused on mixing in educational settings between members of Catholic and Protestant ethnoreligious groups in Northern Ireland.Aims. In Study 1, we examined whether opportunities for contact at home and at university were associated with greater actual out-group friendships, and whether this friendship was associated with a reduction in prejudice. We also assessed whether the impact of out-group friendships at univer…
Sharing Classes between Separate Schools: A Mechanism for Improving Inter-Group Relations in Northern Ireland
One manifestation of division and the history of conflict in Northern Ireland is the parallel education system that exists for Protestants and Catholics. Although recent decades have seen some advances in the promotion of integrated education, around 95% of children continue to attend schools separated on ethno-religious lines. In 2007 a programme for sharing education was established. Underpinned by intergroup contact theory, and reflecting educ…
Extended contact effects as a function of closeness of relationship with ingroup contacts
Using survey data from Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland ( N = 428), the authors examined the effects of extended contact via different types of ingroup contacts (neighbors, work colleagues, friends, and family members) and tested whether closeness to ingroup contacts moderated the effects of extended contact on outgroup trust. Results demonstrated that extended contact effects varied as a function of the relationship to ingroup conta…
Are separate schools divisive? A case study from Northern Ireland
In Northern Ireland, where the majority of children are educated at schools attended mainly by coreligionists, the debate concerning the role of schools in perpetuating intergroup hostilities has recently been reignited. Against questions regarding the efficacy of community relations policy in education, the research reported in this paper employs qualitative methods to examine social identity and intergroup attitudes amongst children attending a…
Contact, trust and social capital in Northern Ireland: A Qualitative Study of Three Mixed Communities
n In a recent paper, Robert Putnam (2007) challenges the contact hypothesis by arguing that ethnic diversity causes people to `hunker down? and essentially withdraw themselves from society. Drawing on qualitative data collected from three mixed communities in Northern Ireland, this paper explores the extent and quality of contact experienced by Protestants and Catholics in their everyday lives. Themes emerging from our data are generally consiste…
Direct Contact as a Moderator of Extended Contact Effects: Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Impact on Outgroup Attitudes, Behavioral Intentions, and Attitude Certainty
Cross-group friendships (the most effective form of direct contact) and extended contact (i.e., knowing ingroup members who have outgroup friends) constitute two of the most important means of improving outgroup attitudes. Using cross-sectional and longitudinal samples from different intergroup contexts, this research demonstrates that extended contact is most effective when individuals live in segregated neighborhoods having only few, or no, dir…
Secondary transfer effects of intergroup contact: Alternative accounts and underlying processes
Although intergroup contact is one of the most prominent interventions to reduce prejudice, the generalization of contact effects is still a contentious issue. This research further examined the rarely studied secondary transfer effect (STE; Pettigrew, 2009), by which contact with a primary outgroup reduces prejudice toward secondary groups that are not directly involved in the contact. Across 3 cross-sectional studies conducted in Cyprus (N = 1,…
Extended contact effects as a function of closeness of relationship with ingroup contacts
Using survey data from Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland ( N = 428), the authors examined the effects of extended contact via different types of ingroup contacts (neighbors, work colleagues, friends, and family members) and tested whether closeness to ingroup contacts moderated the effects of extended contact on outgroup trust. Results demonstrated that extended contact effects varied as a function of the relationship to ingroup conta…
Building Trust in a Postconflict Society: An Integrative Model of Cross-group Friendship and Intergroup Emotions
Across one longitudinal and two cross-sectional surveys in Northern Ireland, we tested a model of intergroup relations in which out-group attitudes and behavioral tendencies are predicted by cross-group friendship and positive intergroup appraisals, mediated by intergroup emotions and out-group trust. In study 1, out-group friendship at time 1 predicted out-group trust at time 2 (one year later), controlling for prior out-group trust. In study 2,…
Sharing Classes between Separate Schools: A Mechanism for Improving Inter-Group Relations in Northern Ireland
One manifestation of division and the history of conflict in Northern Ireland is the parallel education system that exists for Protestants and Catholics. Although recent decades have seen some advances in the promotion of integrated education, around 95% of children continue to attend schools separated on ethno-religious lines. In 2007 a programme for sharing education was established. Underpinned by intergroup contact theory, and reflecting educ…
Community relations in Northern Ireland: A shift in attitudes
The paper presents an analysis of Northern Ireland Social Attitudes data available at the time of writing. Its significance lay in emerging disparities in the responses, over time, of Protestants and Catholics to key social issues such as integrated education. The data, made public just one year after the signing of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, generated intense media interest. Findings were reported in 400 outlets worldwide (UU media monit…
Segregation in Northern Ireland: Implications for Community Relations Policy
In Northern Ireland it is estimated that 35–40 per cent of Protestants and Catholics live in communities divided along ethno-sectarian lines, and some research suggests increasing segregation in recent years. A recent policy initiative to promote a ‘Shared Future’ acknowledges that the problems of residential segregation relate, at least in part, to endemic fear and sense of threat in divided communities. The research presented in this article re…
Contact, culture and context: Evidence from mixed faith schools in Northern Ireland and Israel
This paper compares the concept of mixed faith/cultural education in Northern Ireland and Israel. It is primarily concerned with the processes that these ‘integrated’ schools adopt in their quest to improve relations between divided ethnic groups. Drawing on qualitative data collected in two mixed religion primary schools in each jurisdiction the paper shows that the schools' existing cultural norms act as important mediating influences on the wa…
Contact, trust and social capital in Northern Ireland: A Qualitative Study of Three Mixed Communities
n In a recent paper, Robert Putnam (2007) challenges the contact hypothesis by arguing that ethnic diversity causes people to `hunker down? and essentially withdraw themselves from society. Drawing on qualitative data collected from three mixed communities in Northern Ireland, this paper explores the extent and quality of contact experienced by Protestants and Catholics in their everyday lives. Themes emerging from our data are generally consiste…
Crossing the Divide: Community Relations in Northern Ireland
Despite the elusiveness of a `solution' to the Northern Ireland problem, either politically or militarily, many public policy issues (education, housing, employment) have been re-examined to address the underlying causes of divisiveness between the two communities. This article looks at the contributions of one such policy initiative, a `bottom-up' community-based approach to peace under the auspices of local authorities. Qualitative evidence fro…
For Better or Worse? Community Relations Initiatives in Northern Ireland
The last ten years have seen the most sustained attempt by the British government to address the underlying problems of segregation and division in Northern Ireland through a reexamination of public policy issues (housing, education, and employment). This paper examines the contribution of one such policy initiative, a “bottom‐up” approach to community relations under the auspices of the Central Community Relations Unit. Official evaluations of t…
W hat ’ s T here to F ear ?”—A C omparative S tudy of R esponses to the O ut ‐G roup in M ixed and S egregated A reas of B elfast
Despite some significant political developments and the advent of paramilitary cease‐fires, Northern Ireland remains a deeply divided society characterized by high levels of residential segregation. Although a causal link between segregation and intercommunity conflict has not been established, a wealth of research data points to the benefits of intercommunity contact in divided societies. Drawing on theoretical literature from social psychology,…
It's never too late for 'us' to meet 'them: Prior intergroup friendships moderate the impact of later intergroup friendships in educational settings
Background. In this paper, we focused on mixing in educational settings between members of Catholic and Protestant ethnoreligious groups in Northern Ireland.Aims. In Study 1, we examined whether opportunities for contact at home and at university were associated with greater actual out-group friendships, and whether this friendship was associated with a reduction in prejudice. We also assessed whether the impact of out-group friendships at univer…
Are separate schools divisive? A case study from Northern Ireland
In Northern Ireland, where the majority of children are educated at schools attended mainly by coreligionists, the debate concerning the role of schools in perpetuating intergroup hostilities has recently been reignited. Against questions regarding the efficacy of community relations policy in education, the research reported in this paper employs qualitative methods to examine social identity and intergroup attitudes amongst children attending a…
Constitutional Reform in Northern Ireland: Implications for Community Relations Policy and Practice
The role of macro‐level processes in determining the effectiveness or otherwise of micro‐level initiatives is a theme that is developed in this paper. Based on efforts to tackle division between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland through cross‐community contact, the paper will argue that the structural context within which contact occurs has important implications for the extent to which achievements of particular encounters are extrap…
Plugging the gap’: Shared education and the promotion of community relations through schools in Northern Ireland
Although there is no consensus among educationalists as to the role schools play as drivers of hostilities in divided societies, there is broad agreement that they can facilitate more positive intergroup relations. In Northern Ireland the promotion of school based intergroup contact has been offered as a means through which this can happen. Until 2007, the approach was twofold, reflected on the one hand in short‐term contact opportunities for pup…
Contact as a policy mechanism for promoting better relations in integrated schools in Northern Ireland and bilingual/bi‐national schools in Israel
Policy initiatives in inter‐group education evolved in Northern Ireland and Israel at around the same time. In each jurisdiction, the emphasis is on improving relations between protagonist groups in ethnically divided societies. Central to this objective and at the core of integrated education (Northern Ireland) and bilingual/bi‐national education (Israel) is sustained contact in a shared learning environment. Based on qualitative research in fou…
Shared education as a contact-based intervention to improve intergroup relations among adolescents in postconflict Northern Ireland
Past research has shown that intergroup contact can be a promising intervention to improve intergroup relations and that contact-based interventions might be most effective during adolescence. In postconflict Northern Ireland, widespread residential segregation and a largely separate school system limit opportunities for intergroup contact between adolescents from the Catholic and Protestant communities. We evaluated whether a large-scale interve…
Contact and context: Sharing education and building relationships in a divided society
One approach to tackling problems of division in society has been to promote collaboration and engagement between schools separated on ethno-religious lines. Based on some variant of contact theory, the received wisdom is that inter-group encounters can contribute to prejudice reduction and promote more harmonious relationships. Evidence to support this analysis is convincing; however, relatively little is known about the environmental factors th…
Community relations in Northern Ireland: Lessons from Drumcree
The last ten years have seen a concerted effort on the part of policy makers in Northern Ireland to address the community relations problem. Ostensibly, there have been significant achievements with a community relations infrastructure now well established and augmented by relevant policy and legislation. Despite this, a consequence of contentious Orange Order parades during the last three summers has been an upsurge in sectarianism and intimidat…
Peace, reconciliation and a shared future: A Policy Shift or More of the Same
Developments in the late 1990s, including paramilitary cease-fires and the advent (albeit, short-lived) of devolved Government, offered a new dispensation from which to appraise the community relations problem in Northern Ireland and advocate policy action. This paper considers an emergent policy framework entitled A Shared Future. Drawing on the experience of delivering better relations through education in Northern Ireland, it argues that whils…
Mediating and Moderating Effects of Inter-Group Contact: Case Studies from Bilingual/Bi-National Schools in Israel
Bilingual, bi-national schools in Israel aim to educate, together, children from linguistically and culturally diverse Arab and Jewish backgrounds. They reflect an ideological commitment to a more peaceful society and are based on the theoretical premises of the contact hypothesis. In its earliest manifestation, contact theory identified conditions under which inter-group contact was likely to improve negative social attitudes. More recently, and…
Shared education: A case study in social cohesion
Adopting a social cohesion framework, we consider how the shared education model in Northern Ireland reflects distributive, ideational and relational dimensions of social cohesion, and the processes through which its implementation may be contributing to a more socially cohesive society. We use this case study to reflect on the current conceptualisation of social cohesion in the literature and to argue for dynamic and interdependent connections b…
Balancing Cultural Diversity and Social Cohesion in Education: The Potential of Shared Education in Divided Contexts
This article considers how the education systems of divided societies have been shaped in response to the experience of ethnic and religious conflict. The analysis identifies two competing priorities in such contexts – the development of social cohesion and the protection of cultural, ethnic and religious identities – and explores how these may be reconciled through a model of ‘shared education’. Drawing on research evidence and recent experience…
Caught in the conundrum: Neoliberalism and education in post-conflict Northern Ireland – Exploring shared education
Northern Ireland (NI) is emerging from a violent period in its troubled history and remains a society characterized by segregation between its two main communities. Nowhere is this more apparent than in education, where for the most part Catholic and Protestant pupils are educated separately. During the last 30 years there has been twofold pressure placed on the education system in NI – at one level to respond to intergroup tensions by promoting …
Shared Education Initiatives in N orthern I reland: A Model for Effective Intergroup Contact in Divided Jurisdictions
As Northern Ireland transitions from violence to sustainable peace, one area in particular that remains deeply divided is the parallel education system that operates for C atholic and P rotestant pupils. Working within the existing system of separate education, and underpinned by contact theory, the S haring E ducation P rogramme ( SEP ) was launched in 2007 to deliver shared classes for pupils from the different sectors. While SEP is a relativel…
Equality and equity: An emerging government policy in Northern Ireland
A series of equality and equity measures has been introduced by the British Government to tackle the seemingly intractable problems of Northern Ireland. These measures represent a range of initiatives in the areas of social need, fair employment, education reform and community relations. The implementation of the community relations programme is considered in some detail as a case study in improving equality and equity in Northern Ireland. Qualit…
Local Government and Community Relations
Local government and community relations could appear, to the sceptical observer of events in Northern Ireland, as a contradiction in terms. As early as 1922 the unionist government consolidated its grip on local politics through the Local Government (NI) Act which replaced proportional representation with majority voting, redrew ward boundaries and altered the franchise by incorporating property ownership as a qualification for the vote (O’Dowd …
Cross‐community contact: Northern Ireland and Israel ‐ a comparative perspective
Since 1989 a community relations programme has been undertaken by Northern Ireland's local authorities. The programme is based upon ‘contact’ between the two communities, with the aim of improving mutual understanding and respect for different cultural traditions. Similar ‘encounter’ programmes have been in operation over a longer period in Israel. This article traces the theoretical underpinnings for such contact schemes, describes the backgroun…
Crossing the Divide: Community Relations in Northern Ireland
Despite the elusiveness of a `solution' to the Northern Ireland problem, either politically or militarily, many public policy issues (education, housing, employment) have been re-examined to address the underlying causes of divisiveness between the two communities. This article looks at the contributions of one such policy initiative, a `bottom-up' community-based approach to peace under the auspices of local authorities. Qualitative evidence fro…
For Better or Worse? Community Relations Initiatives in Northern Ireland
The last ten years have seen the most sustained attempt by the British government to address the underlying problems of segregation and division in Northern Ireland through a reexamination of public policy issues (housing, education, and employment). This paper examines the contribution of one such policy initiative, a “bottom‐up” approach to community relations under the auspices of the Central Community Relations Unit. Official evaluations of t…
Community relations in Northern Ireland: Lessons from Drumcree
The last ten years have seen a concerted effort on the part of policy makers in Northern Ireland to address the community relations problem. Ostensibly, there have been significant achievements with a community relations infrastructure now well established and augmented by relevant policy and legislation. Despite this, a consequence of contentious Orange Order parades during the last three summers has been an upsurge in sectarianism and intimidat…
Constitutional Reform in Northern Ireland: Implications for Community Relations Policy and Practice
The role of macro‐level processes in determining the effectiveness or otherwise of micro‐level initiatives is a theme that is developed in this paper. Based on efforts to tackle division between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland through cross‐community contact, the paper will argue that the structural context within which contact occurs has important implications for the extent to which achievements of particular encounters are extrap…
Community relations in Northern Ireland: A shift in attitudes
The paper presents an analysis of Northern Ireland Social Attitudes data available at the time of writing. Its significance lay in emerging disparities in the responses, over time, of Protestants and Catholics to key social issues such as integrated education. The data, made public just one year after the signing of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, generated intense media interest. Findings were reported in 400 outlets worldwide (UU media monit…
Attitudes to Community Relations in Northern Ireland: Signs of Optimism in the Post Cease-Fire Period
This article uses attitudinal data to explore Catholic and Protestant perspectives on community relations and equality since the paramilitary cease fires in 1994. Although attitudes tend to fluctuate with the ‘headline grabbing’ events of the day, the article argues that there are signs that some fundamental changes have taken place in the post cease fire period. Of particular importance in this regard is the positive response recorded by the Cat…
Contact as a policy mechanism for promoting better relations in integrated schools in Northern Ireland and bilingual/bi‐national schools in Israel
Policy initiatives in inter‐group education evolved in Northern Ireland and Israel at around the same time. In each jurisdiction, the emphasis is on improving relations between protagonist groups in ethnically divided societies. Central to this objective and at the core of integrated education (Northern Ireland) and bilingual/bi‐national education (Israel) is sustained contact in a shared learning environment. Based on qualitative research in fou…
Contact, culture and context: Evidence from mixed faith schools in Northern Ireland and Israel
This paper compares the concept of mixed faith/cultural education in Northern Ireland and Israel. It is primarily concerned with the processes that these ‘integrated’ schools adopt in their quest to improve relations between divided ethnic groups. Drawing on qualitative data collected in two mixed religion primary schools in each jurisdiction the paper shows that the schools' existing cultural norms act as important mediating influences on the wa…
Segregation in Northern Ireland: Implications for Community Relations Policy
In Northern Ireland it is estimated that 35–40 per cent of Protestants and Catholics live in communities divided along ethno-sectarian lines, and some research suggests increasing segregation in recent years. A recent policy initiative to promote a ‘Shared Future’ acknowledges that the problems of residential segregation relate, at least in part, to endemic fear and sense of threat in divided communities. The research presented in this article re…
Peace, reconciliation and a shared future: A Policy Shift or More of the Same
Developments in the late 1990s, including paramilitary cease-fires and the advent (albeit, short-lived) of devolved Government, offered a new dispensation from which to appraise the community relations problem in Northern Ireland and advocate policy action. This paper considers an emergent policy framework entitled A Shared Future. Drawing on the experience of delivering better relations through education in Northern Ireland, it argues that whils…
Mediating and Moderating Effects of Inter-Group Contact: Case Studies from Bilingual/Bi-National Schools in Israel
Bilingual, bi-national schools in Israel aim to educate, together, children from linguistically and culturally diverse Arab and Jewish backgrounds. They reflect an ideological commitment to a more peaceful society and are based on the theoretical premises of the contact hypothesis. In its earliest manifestation, contact theory identified conditions under which inter-group contact was likely to improve negative social attitudes. More recently, and…
W hat ’ s T here to F ear ?”—A C omparative S tudy of R esponses to the O ut ‐G roup in M ixed and S egregated A reas of B elfast
Despite some significant political developments and the advent of paramilitary cease‐fires, Northern Ireland remains a deeply divided society characterized by high levels of residential segregation. Although a causal link between segregation and intercommunity conflict has not been established, a wealth of research data points to the benefits of intercommunity contact in divided societies. Drawing on theoretical literature from social psychology,…
Contact and Culture: Mechanisms of Reconciliation in Schools in Northern Ireland and Israel
Antecedents and Consequences of Social Identity Complexity: Intergroup Contact, Distinctiveness Threat, and Outgroup Attitudes
Social identity complexity defines people's more or less complex cognitive representations of the interrelationships among their multiple ingroup identities. Being high in complexity is contingent on situational, cognitive, or motivational factors, and has positive consequences for intergroup relations. Two survey studies conducted in Northern Ireland examined the extent to which intergroup contact and distinctiveness threat act as antecedents, a…
Direct Contact as a Moderator of Extended Contact Effects: Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Impact on Outgroup Attitudes, Behavioral Intentions, and Attitude Certainty
Cross-group friendships (the most effective form of direct contact) and extended contact (i.e., knowing ingroup members who have outgroup friends) constitute two of the most important means of improving outgroup attitudes. Using cross-sectional and longitudinal samples from different intergroup contexts, this research demonstrates that extended contact is most effective when individuals live in segregated neighborhoods having only few, or no, dir…
The effect of a poverty reduction policy and service quality standards on commune-level primary health care utilization in Thai Nguyen Province, Vietnam
Although universal access to quality health services is a primary policy goal of the Government of Vietnam (GOVN), economic restructuring and privatization of health services have been associated with emerging inequities in access to care. A GOVN programme for socio-economic development known as Program 135 (P135) designates communes known to be relatively poor as priority localities for development resources. Under this programme, basic curative…
Secondary transfer effects of intergroup contact: Alternative accounts and underlying processes
Although intergroup contact is one of the most prominent interventions to reduce prejudice, the generalization of contact effects is still a contentious issue. This research further examined the rarely studied secondary transfer effect (STE; Pettigrew, 2009), by which contact with a primary outgroup reduces prejudice toward secondary groups that are not directly involved in the contact. Across 3 cross-sectional studies conducted in Cyprus (N = 1,…
Extended contact effects as a function of closeness of relationship with ingroup contacts
Using survey data from Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland ( N = 428), the authors examined the effects of extended contact via different types of ingroup contacts (neighbors, work colleagues, friends, and family members) and tested whether closeness to ingroup contacts moderated the effects of extended contact on outgroup trust. Results demonstrated that extended contact effects varied as a function of the relationship to ingroup conta…
Are separate schools divisive? A case study from Northern Ireland
In Northern Ireland, where the majority of children are educated at schools attended mainly by coreligionists, the debate concerning the role of schools in perpetuating intergroup hostilities has recently been reignited. Against questions regarding the efficacy of community relations policy in education, the research reported in this paper employs qualitative methods to examine social identity and intergroup attitudes amongst children attending a…
Contact, trust and social capital in Northern Ireland: A Qualitative Study of Three Mixed Communities
n In a recent paper, Robert Putnam (2007) challenges the contact hypothesis by arguing that ethnic diversity causes people to `hunker down? and essentially withdraw themselves from society. Drawing on qualitative data collected from three mixed communities in Northern Ireland, this paper explores the extent and quality of contact experienced by Protestants and Catholics in their everyday lives. Themes emerging from our data are generally consiste…
Sharing Classes between Separate Schools: A Mechanism for Improving Inter-Group Relations in Northern Ireland
One manifestation of division and the history of conflict in Northern Ireland is the parallel education system that exists for Protestants and Catholics. Although recent decades have seen some advances in the promotion of integrated education, around 95% of children continue to attend schools separated on ethno-religious lines. In 2007 a programme for sharing education was established. Underpinned by intergroup contact theory, and reflecting educ…
Shared Education Initiatives in N orthern I reland: A Model for Effective Intergroup Contact in Divided Jurisdictions
As Northern Ireland transitions from violence to sustainable peace, one area in particular that remains deeply divided is the parallel education system that operates for C atholic and P rotestant pupils. Working within the existing system of separate education, and underpinned by contact theory, the S haring E ducation P rogramme ( SEP ) was launched in 2007 to deliver shared classes for pupils from the different sectors. While SEP is a relativel…
Sociology (34 works) · Political science (31 works) · Psychology (26 works) · Irish and British Studies (25 works) · Social Psychology (19 works) · Law (14 works) · Migration, Refugees, and Integration (14 works) · Geography (13 works) · Law (13 works) · Northern ireland (13 works)