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 pupils in predominantly Catholic and Protestant schools, and on the other, in support for integrated schools that educate Catholics and Protestants together. In 2007 the Shared Education Programme was introduced to ‘bridge the gap’ between short‐term opportunities for contact, and ‘full immersion’ integrated schools. Informed by contact theory, shared education offers curriculum‐based interaction between pupils attending all school types, aimed at promoting the type of contact likely to reduce negative social attitudes and ultimately contribute to social harmony. In this paper, we examine the impact of shared education thus far. Our analysis suggests that while shared education is generally effective in promoting positive assessments of other group members, there is a danger that programme impact may be inhibited by the foregrounding of educational over reconciliation priorities. Appreciating that the downplaying reconciliation objectives may have been necessary when the programme was established in order to maximise recruitment to it, we argue that if the full potential of shared education is to be realised, moving forward, it is important for schools to engage with issues of group differences.

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

Initiatives in intercultural education have frequently involved the promotion of contact between members of different groups as a means of improving intergroup relations. Experience from Northern Ireland suggests, however, that such schemes have often been organised and delivered in such a way that opportunities for sustained, high-quality contact are limited. This paper considers processes of contact in one relatively recent initiative, 'shared education', which involves collaboration between separate schools to deliver classes to Catholic and Protestant pupils in mixed groups. Employing qualitative methods of observation and interviewing to capture participants' experiences of contact, the research explores the influences on the quality and frequency of cross-group interaction in the shared class. With findings highlighting the subject and pedagogy, teacher's approach and classroom arrangement as key factors, the study offers suggestions for policy and practice to enhance opportunities for contact and relationship-building in mixed classes.

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 1 and Cyprus, we reflect on the advantages and challenges of this model in areas experiencing conflict and division.

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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Education in Northern Ireland continues to be organised along denominational lines, with more than 90% of pupils attending separate Catholic or de facto Protestant schools. Since 2007, an initiative known as 'shared education' has operated in the region to provide opportunities for pupils from separate schools to meet and learn together on a regular basis. This involves the formation of collaborative partnerships between Catholic and Protestant schools to deliver joint classes and activities for mixed groups of pupils. One of shared education's objectives is to create more porous boundaries between schools and thereby provide the conditions for relationship-building between pupils. Mindful of this aim, the current study explores to what extent, and how, shared education alters social and spatial practices that sustain division in educational settings. To do so, it adopts Tilly's ( 2004) typology of social boundary mechanisms as a framework for analysing qualitative data collected with 60 pupils in two shared education partnerships. The research identifies instances where boundaries are formed or intensified through shared education, as well as where they are relaxed and reduced, and examines in particular how the emplacement of encounter contributes to this variation in social boundary change.