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 of shared education in relation to Northern Ireland, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Cyprus, we reflect on the advantages and challenges of this model in areas experiencing conflict and division.

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 a twofold pressure placed on the
education system in NI - at one level to respond to intergroup tensions by promoting
reconciliation, and at another, to deal with national policy demands derived from a global neoliberalist
economic agenda. With reference to current efforts to promote shared education
between separate schools, we explore the uneasy dynamic between a school-based
reconciliation programme in a transitioning society and system-wide values that are driven by
neo-liberalism and its organizational manifestation - new managerialism. We argue that whilst
the former seeks to promote social democratic ideals in education that can have a potentially
transformative effect at societal level, neoliberal priorities have the potential to both subvert
shared education and also to embed it.