In this reflective article, we offer innovative approaches to creating opportunities for leadership learning through questioning the intentions versus impacts of leading short-term study abroad courses. We consider the critical relevance of approaching a course like this from a learning disposition--recognizing our roles as learners, as well as…

This paper explores the process of negotiation, lobbying and parliamentary debate that brought the Irish universities legislation into being in the early 1900s against a backdrop of political and religious conflict. The complex interaction between British ministers and Catholic bishops before and throughout the legislative process dictated the…

Many reasons exist for mergers in higher education. One of the most pervasive is the pursuit of resources, often expressed in terms of student numbers which give increased power within an education ecology. However, resource dependency is not the only rationale for merger; and history demonstrates that a multi-campus institution may disband as…

The European Union (EU) aims to promote peace. This research investigates the saliency of a European identity for children from majority and minority groups in four conflict-affected societies in Europe (Croatia, Kosovo, Northern Ireland (NI), and Republic of North Macedonia (RNM)). These sites represent a range of relations with the EU (e.g.,…

Small rural schools have often been characterised as being at the heart of their communities. However, there is no clarity on what that means nor on the perceived meaning of 'community' within this context. The findings of the Small School Rural Community Study focused on the relationship between small rural schools and the communities they serve…

While education abroad can facilitate experiential learning, when travel is focused around collective trauma, academic tours may exacerbate harm. In this article, we describe our process of seeking to be accountable for the role of our course, which focuses on the 30-year conflict, known as the Troubles that took place in Northern Ireland, in…

Education plays an important role in bridging divisions and promoting positive intergroup relations. A number of initiatives aimed at improving relations in conflict-affected societies have been based on the contact hypothesis. However, very little attention has been devoted to the potential of such interventions to reduce social distance between…

To what extent do teachers' sense of their religious, cultural and national identity impact on their attitudes and approaches to the teaching of religion in publicly funded schools in Northern Ireland? In a context where schooling remains largely separate according to perceived religious identity, can religious education contribute positively to…

Schooling for Northern Ireland children has over decades been in denominationally separate schools, until an integrated system was instigated by concerned parents in the late 1970s amidst growing political violence. By educating together Catholic and Protestant pupils and those of other religions or none, the hope was to contribute to peace in a…

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…

History education that deals with the controversial and sensitive past is a vehicle for peacemaking in conflict-affected societies. However, its success is dependent on teachers taking risks to challenge entrenched 'us versus them' views of history. How does a student teacher in Northern Ireland grapple with risk-taking when learning to teach…

The purpose of this article is to compare teachers' and students' interpretations of citizenship education (CE) across different communities in conflict-affected societies. By drawing on qualitative research that was conducted in four different schools in Northern Ireland and Israel (Catholic, Protestant, Jewish-Israeli and Arab-Palestinian), we…

Understanding when children develop a sense of group boundaries has implications for conflict and its resolution. Integrating social identity development theory and the developmental peace-building model, we investigated whether preferences for ethno-religious ingroup symbols mediate the link from child age to outgroup prosocial giving among 5- to…

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…

This article reports on the impact visits to community-based museums in a divided society, Northern Ireland, had on young people's historical, political, and cultural understanding of the commemorated past. It examines the responses of two student groups, one predominantly Protestant and the other Catholic, to two museums, each presenting its own…