Citizenship education in divided societies: teachers' perspectives in Northern Ireland

Abstract

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Educating teachers towards global citizenship: A comparative study in four European countries

“…Summarizing their systematic literature review of GCE, Goren and Yemini (2017: 179) conclude that 'teachers and educators recognize the importance of GCE; however, they often feel trapped between curricular goals encouraging its incorporation in the classroom and cultural norms of nationalism or lack of practical resources that hinder their ability to actually teach it'. Research identifies that teachers express concern for inadequate teaching tools and resources (Appleyard and McLean, 2011;Carr et al, 2014), and may perceive themselves as ill-equipped and therefore likely to avoid complex global issues (Niens et al, 2013). Within the Irish context, perceptions of limited resources, limited personal expertise and low teacher confidence hinder more critical classroom engagement with global issues (Clarke and Drudy, 2006;Holden and Hicks, 2007;McCormack and O'Flaherty, 2010).…”

Policy and Research on Citizenship Education in the United Kingdom (1998–2018)

“…The Northern Ireland case is, indeed, often presented as an example of citizenship education in a post-conflict society. Second, Human Rights are understood to provide the 'value base' of any citizenship-related discussion (Niens, O'Connor & Smith, 2013). Human Rights are considered globally accepted values, particularly in its mentions to peace (Niens & Chastenay, 2008).…”

“…And third, citizenship education is conceived as an inquiry-based area (McMurray & Niens, 2012;Niens & Chastenay, 2008). Controversial issues are understood as the key educational strategy to encourage conflict management and deliberation (Niens et al, 2013).…”

“…In Northern Ireland, discussions on national identity are particularly challenging. Whilst the principal focus of the citizenship education policies is on social cohesion (Andrews & Mycock, 2007), students in the region usually attend to segregated schools, either Catholic or Protestant (Niens et al, 2013). Thus, teachers are often left with the complicated task of fostering understanding with the Other when this Other is often absent from the school context (Barton & Mccully, 2005).…”

Teaching citizenship in the faith school: qualitative evidence from separate schools in Northern Ireland

“…Importantly, the emphasis was on teachers adopting an inquiry based approach to citizenship encouraging students to deliberate around issues of power, equality and human rights within the local and global context (CCEA, 2007;Geboers et al,2013;Van Driel et al 2016). Despite its intentions though concerns have been raised in relation to the willingness of teachers to adopt active pedagogies with respect to teaching about the conflict and such reticence appears to be compounded by a lack of training (McEvoy 2007;Niens, et al 2013). So whilst citizenship education is a component of initial teacher-training programmes Local and Global Citizenship is not specified as a Main Subject (Arlow, 2012 These concerns about teaching citizenship have been documented but less understood is the importance of school type in determining how citizenship education is taught and learned.…”