Joining together or pushing apart? Building relationships and exploring difference through shared education in Northern Ireland

Loader, Rebecca; Hughes, Joanne

doi:10.1080/0305764x.2015.1125448

Cited by 20 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…This desire to control classroom interaction was indicative of a perception that contact carried a high risk of conflict, particularly where it could lead to discussions of sensitive issues such as political identity, discrimination and inequality. We have discussed this elsewhere (Loader and Hughes, 2017), but it is worth noting that teachers' preference not to engage with such topics served to uphold the norms of avoidance that were prevalent both in the schools and the wider societies.…”

Section: Institutional and Normative Support In The Classroommentioning

confidence: 99%

‘By law, custom or local atmosphere’: Exploring institutional support in school‐based contact programmes

Loader

Hughes

Furey

2020

British Educational Res J

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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 to address this gap through a study of institutional support within a school-based contact initiative operating in two countries, Northern Ireland and North Macedonia. Known as 'shared education', this promotes inter-school collaboration as a means of fostering contact between pupils from different ethnic or religious backgrounds. Adopting a qualitative approach and using data collected through interviews with staff involved in four shared education projects, this study explores three aspects: the extent to which shared education demonstrates support for contact; the factors that encourage or impede supportive contact norms; and the relationship between the norms of the school and those of other authorities, particularly parents and the community.

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Section: Institutional and Normative Support In The Classroommentioning

confidence: 99%

‘By law, custom or local atmosphere’: Exploring institutional support in school‐based contact programmes

Loader

Hughes

Furey

2020

British Educational Res J

Self Cite

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“…One potential barrier to this is that people do not like to talk about issues of identity and difference. During contact between Catholic and Protestant pupils in Northern Ireland, for example, issues of group differences are rarely discussed because of a fear of being construed as offensive, intimidating or provocative, with teachers feeling equally uncomfortable in leading these types of conversations (Loader & Hughes 2017). People in particular are similarly avoidant when it comes to talking about race during intergroup contact.…”

Section: Summary and Suggestions For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crossing the divide: promoting confidence in contact in a diverse world

Turner¹

2020

JBA

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We are living in an increasingly diverse world, an exciting prospect given that positive interactions between people from different social groups have numerous benefits. Unfortunately, however, people often fail to engage in such interactions. Moreover, there is evidence that prejudice, both at an individual and a societal level, remains prevalent. To navigate the diverse world in which we live and, in turn, promote positive intergroup relations, it is important to develop skills and beliefs that will enable us to engage confidently in cross-group relationships. This article will highlight research which demonstrates some of the many benefits of engaging in intergroup contact, from more positive intergroup relations to broader changes in the way we think. The importance of promoting confidence at engaging in contact and its potential predictors and outcomes will be considered. Finally, interventions—specifically extended contact, imagined contact and online contact or e-contact—will be outlined that can help to make people more confident, and in turn more likely to engage in successful interactions with people from different backgrounds to themselves.

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“…The positive effects of contact have been found through indirect contact as well as direct contact (Paolini, Hewstone, Cairns, & Voci, ), with reduction of intergroup anxiety as the key mediator of contact effects (e.g., Paolini et al, ; Tausch, Hewstone, Kenworthy, Cairns, & Christ, ). However, even in educational settings where substantial progress has been made in fostering and supporting intergroup contact, it is evident that intergroup encounters are complex and nuanced and that proximity by itself does not automatically result in positive relationships (Loader & Hughes, ).…”

Section: The Impacts Of Residential Diversificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neighborhood Identity Helps Residents Cope with Residential Diversification: Contact in Increasingly Mixed Neighborhoods of Northern Ireland

Stevenson

Easterbrook

Harkin

et al. 2018

Political Psychology

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Research on residential diversification has mainly focused on its negative impacts upon community cohesion and positive effects on intergroup relations. However, these analyses ignore how neighborhood identity can shape the consequences of diversification among residents. Elsewhere, research using the Applied Social Identity Approach (ASIA) has demonstrated the potential for neighborhood identity to provide social and psychological resources to cope with challenges. The current article proposes a novel model whereby these "Social Cure" processes can enable residents to cope with the specific challenges of diversification. We present two studies in support of this model, each from the increasingly religiously desegregated society of postconflict Northern Ireland. Analysis of the 2012 "Northern Ireland Life and Times" survey shows that across Northern Ireland, neighborhood identity impacts positively upon both well-being and intergroup attitudes via a reduction in intergroup anxiety. A second custom-designed survey of residents in a newly mixed area of Belfast shows that neighborhood identification predicts increased well-being, reduced intergroup anxiety, and reduced prejudice independently of group norms and experiences of contact. For political psychologists, our evidence suggests a reformulation of the fundamental question of "what effects do residential mixing have on neighborhoods?" to "how can neighborhood communities support residents to collectively cope with contact?" KEY WORDS: social identity, intergroup contact, residential mixing, Social Cure, intergroup anxiety bs_bs_banner

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Joining together or pushing apart? Building relationships and exploring difference through shared education in Northern Ireland

Abstract: Joining together or pushing apart? Building relationships and exploring difference through shared education in Northern Ireland.

Cited by 20 publications

References 48 publications

‘By law, custom or local atmosphere’: Exploring institutional support in school‐based contact programmes

‘By law, custom or local atmosphere’: Exploring institutional support in school‐based contact programmes

Crossing the divide: promoting confidence in contact in a diverse world

Neighborhood Identity Helps Residents Cope with Residential Diversification: Contact in Increasingly Mixed Neighborhoods of Northern Ireland

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