Teachers' and Ppils' Educational Experiences and School‐Based Responses to the Conflict in Northern Ireland

Abstract

This article describes a study which examined (a) the impact of the political conflict on teachers' and ppils' experiences of education in Northern Ireland and (b) the impact of curricular‐based interventions designed to support the ppils and reduce prejudice. The focus of the second part of the article is on the prejudice reduction initiatives identified. A total of 44 staff and 78 ppils spread across 8 schools participated and both teachers' and ppils' perspectives were identified, the latter being an extremely important dimension which has rarely been addressed in previous studies of this area. The findings, which highlight the complexity of the impact of the political conflict, are considered to have both practical and theoretical implications for prejudice reduction programs. “Young people are asked to ‘voice’ their views not only because it is seen as beneficial to them personally, but because people believe they can learn from what they are saying.” — Hadfield and Hawe, 2001 , p. 94