浅析北爱尔兰冲突的根源

北爱尔兰冲突有其深刻的政治和历史原因,根深蒂固的民族和宗教矛盾、缺少共同的政治目标以及冲突双方对权利划分的分歧是北爱问题的症结所在.幸运的是在世纪之交,和平的力量在不断增强.虽然永久和平的路可能是艰难曲折的,但毕竟坚冰已破,曙光已经初现.     

The governmentality of reconciliation: adult education as a community relations technique in Northern Ireland

Despite a successfully negotiated peace agreement in Belfast in 1998, tensions between different community groups continue to exist in Northern Ireland. This situation creates a governmental need to find solutions to problems such as segregation, inter- and intra-group violence and other forms of sectarian antagonisms. On the one hand, this is attempted by disciplinary measures such as ‘peace walls’ and an increased presence of state powers such as police and armed forces. On the other hand, community relations discourses remain a common refrain in Northern Ireland with their focus on a ‘conduct of conduct’ approach. In this article, I seek to understand adult community education through community relations initiatives and designated anti-sectarian courses as a governmental technology in Northern Ireland designed to change technologies of the self. The article highlights the possibilities for a way forward inherent in this approach and links community relations to broader contexts of policy developments in Northern Ireland.     

Shared education in Northern Ireland: school collaboration in divided societies

Abstract

During the years of political violence in Northern Ireland many looked to schools to contribute to reconciliation. A variety of interventions were attempted throughout those years, but there was little evidence that any had produced systemic change. The peace process provided an opportunity for renewed efforts. This paper outlines the experience of a series of projects on 'shared education', or the establishment of collaborative networks of Protestant, Catholic and integrated schools in which teachers and pupils moved between schools to take classes and share experiences. The paper outlines the genesis of the idea and the research which helped inform the shape of the shared education project. The paper also outlines the corpus of research which has examined various aspects of shared education practice and lays out the emergent model which is helping to inform current government practice in Northern Ireland, and is being adopted in other jurisdictions. The paper concludes by looking at the prospects for real transformation of education in Northern Ireland.     

Shared Education in contested spaces: How collaborative networks improve communities and schools

Societies which suffer from ethnic and political divisions are often characterised by patterns of social and institutional separation, and sometimes these divisions remain even after political conflict has ended. This has occurred in Northern Ireland where there is, and remains, a long-standing pattern of parallel institutions and services for the different communities. A socially significant example lies in the education system where a parallel system of Catholic and Protestant schools has been in place since the establishment of a national school system in the 1830s. During the years of political violence in Northern Ireland a variety of educational interventions were implemented to promote reconciliation, but most of them failed to create any systemic change. This paper describes a post-conflict educational initiative known as Shared Education which aims to promote social cohesion and school improvement by encouraging sustained and regular shared learning between students and broader collaboration between teachers and school leaders from different schools. The paper examines the background to work on Shared Education, describes a ‘sharing continuum’ which emerged as an evaluation and policy tool from this work and considers evidence from a case study of a Shared Education school partnership in a divided city in Northern Ireland. The paper will conclude by highlighting some of the significant social and policy impact of the Shared Education work.     

Citizenship Education in Northern Ireland: Beyond national identity?

The introduction of citizenship education to the curriculum of all schools in Northern Ireland is one way of underpinning a long-term commitment to democratic politics as part of a fragile peace process. However, the concept of citizenship requires careful consideration in a society where there are different loyalties that give rise to conflict over the future constitutional status of the society itself. Neither British nor Irish national identity provides the basis for a 'patriotic' model of citizenship that could be accepted in all schools. This article describes the commitments and confidence-building measures contained in the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement and its implications for developing a concept of citizenship that might transcend the two main nationalisms that exist in Northern Ireland.     

Examining the legacy of the Warnock Report in Northern Ireland: A Foucauldian genealogical approach

Over 40 years after the publication of the Report of the Committee of Enquiry into the Education of Handicapped Children and Young People, commonly referred to as the Warnock Report, this article uniquely considers its legacy in the context of Northern Ireland. The article adopts a Foucauldian genealogical approach to consider first the specific context of the ‘emergence’ or ‘origins’ of the Warnock Report in the 1970s, highlighting competing political forces and the positioning of the report at the very end of the age of post-war welfarism. The approach details the key elements of the Warnock Report itself, and then charts the resulting development of SEN policy in Northern Ireland, culminating in the faltering process of reform which began in 2006 and has been partially completed but which has recently been halted by the collapse of the power-sharing Executive and the suspension of the Northern Ireland Assembly in January 2017. The legacy of the Warnock Report is critically examined, identifying the main positive contributions of the report but also acknowledging the enduring challenges set against a complex current financial and political context. Finally, rather than leaving Warnock completely behind, a case is made for a fresh, detailed, context-specific reading of this seminal report.     

Developing the Theory and Practice of Action Research: a South African case

The three tales told here concern my experiences of teaching educational action research. I first became involved in action research in 1973 while a doctoral student working on peace and cultural studies education curriculum in Northern Ireland where project teachers inquired into their own classrooms so as to facilitate the teaching of contentious social and political issues for mutual understanding across the religious–political divide. My three tales of teaching action research are rooted in three very different settings: one working with gypsy education projects in inner-city Dublin; the second as part of a small university–school collaborative in rural North Carolina, and the last a tale of a doctoral seminar at East Carolina University.     

Religious education after conflicts: promoting social cohesion or entrenching existing cleavages?

This article considers initiatives to reform religious education after violent identity-based conflicts in Lebanon, Northern Ireland and Macedonia. The Taif Agreement, the Belfast Agreement and the Ohrid Agreement mapped extensive education reforms and established consociational power-sharing in the three jurisdictions, altering state identity and inter-communal hierarchies. The existing literature generates two hypotheses on the political function of religious education after violent conflicts: (1) religious education tends to entrench existing ethnic, national and political cleavages or (2) religious education helps further mutual knowledge, integration and social cohesion after violent conflicts. This comparative research employs original interviews and documents to evaluate initiatives to reform religious education (as a curricular subject) in post-conflict Lebanon, Northern Ireland and Macedonia. It suggests that the first hypothesis reflects more accurately the political function of education: religious education helps entrench existing cleavages in these deeply divided societies, but this does not necessarily hamper short-term peace and political stability.     

Education in Northern Ireland since the Good Friday Agreement: Kabuki theatre meets danse macabre

Abstract

The Good Friday Agreement (1998) between the UK and Irish governments, and most of the political parties in Northern Ireland, heralded a significant step forward in securing peace and stability for this troubled region of the British Isles. From the new-found stability, the previous fits and starts of education reform were replaced by a determination for modernisation and innovation, infused with a new energy and momentum. This sense of purpose embraced a complex weave of ideas and ideals; all designed variously to smooth, celebrate and harness community differences for the collective good. Much progress has been made in the intervening years since 1998, particularly in political structures and relationships. However, the euphoria of the new dawn of the Agreement had barely begun to shape the future before entrenched ‘tribal’ tensions reproduced the same political and legislative impasses of former years and visited their all-too-familiar blight on the economic, cultural and educational landscapes. This paper focuses on two signature dimensions of education that have been sustained by this partisanship: segregation by religion and segregation by academic selection.     

Television and Primary Schoolchildren in Northern Ireland 1. Television Programme Preferences

This is the first of two articles concerned with schoolchildren and television in Northern Ireland. Research on children and television has concentrated on effects, notably adverse ones. Children's own definitions of and views about the medium have been largely ignored with the result that media education has been encouraged along prevent‐or‐cure lines. By establishing the programme preferences of 7 to 11 year olds in Northern Ireland, the research reported is seen as a step towards providing a sounder basis for media education development.     

Professional Educational Psychology and Community Relations Education in Northern Ireland

The events in North Belfast surrounding the children of Holy Cross Primary School have reminded us all, graphically, of how long and tortuous the path to lasting peace in Northern Ireland might be. In this very timely article, the author describes his practice-based research aimed at informing the processes of school improvement for peace and reconciliation. The analysis involves an exploration of the contribution that professional educational psychology might make to community relations education and to the broader project of inclusion and social reconstruction in Northern Ireland. The present article intends to contribute towards local debate concerning a reappraisal of the educational psychologist role. Furthermore, to be relevant to all educational psychologists who are interested in the contribution of schooling towards improved intergroup relationships and peace education.     

It is changed beyond all recognition: exploring the evolving habitus of assistants in special schools

The assistant workforce is a constituent presence in all schools. Progressive reconfiguration of the role has resulted in a hybrid position, with assistants customarily navigating power relationships in the hierarchy of the school. This paper employs Bourdieu’s theory of social fields, in particular, his system of relations, as a means to consider the intersection of habitus and capital amongst assistants in special schools in Northern Ireland. Using this analytic approach, focus group interviews with Classroom Assistants and Health Assistants explored their current deployment, their interaction with each other and with teachers. Data was collected from 47 participants across 7 special schools, with interviews transcribed and thematically analysed. Findings revealed assistants as a workforce in transition, whose conventional habitus has been steadily disrupted by a supply and demand culture often at variance with the origins of the post. Whilst such divergence has the potential to create a site of struggle, the burgeoning social and cultural capital held by assistants has, instead, re-configured their perceived position within the special school environment, creating more porous professional boundaries and an increasingly fluid professional identity. These explanatory insights offer a fresh perspective for further research into this pivotal yet under-researched group in Northern Ireland.     

Teaching a Selection of Heaney’s Troubles Poetry to Upper Post-primary Pupils in Northern Ireland’s Divided Schools: Educational Contexts and Pedagogical Opportunities

Centred on a carefully chosen selection of Heaney’s Troubles poems, this paper explores pedagogical opportunities that the poems present in the context of upper post-primary classrooms in Northern Ireland’s divided schools. Five poems are evaluated in total. These are: ‘The Other Side’, ‘A Constable calls’, ‘The Toome Road’, ‘The Strand at Lough Beg’ and ‘An Ulster Twilight’. While these five poems represent only a small selection of Heaney’s Troubles poems, they nonetheless cover an interesting spectrum in terms of their politico-cultural perspectives. The analysis of the poems focuses on exploring how teachers could use the poems to enable pupils to examine their traditional identities and allegiances and perhaps re-evaluate them in the light of new insights provided by the poems. While suggestions for this pedagogical exploration is at the heart of the paper, the early section establishes some relevant theoretical and educational contexts and the concluding section situates the paper in the context of previous, related curricular initiatives with Northern Ireland. It is to be hoped, finally, that the curricular initiative proposed by the paper could contribute, if even in a small way, to the ongoing search for peace and reconciliation between Northern Ireland’s two main, and still divided, communities.     

The second chance school

Loughshore Educational Resource Centre is a religiously integrated, co‐educational, special needs and secondary school situated in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Loughshore works with a wide clientele of pupils across the spectrum of need and ability from the metropolitan area of Belfast. It plays a vital role as an educational base for a multiplicity of out‐of‐school children. The centre works in the backdrop of an emerging peace in the region as well as the significantly high levels of deprivation experienced across Northern Ireland’s capital. With places at the centre at a premium, a strict admission criterion exists. The centre aims to give a ‘second chance’ to its pupils, who are at risk of social exclusion, focusing on academic, personal and social development, providing skills which can be used to gain employment or continue to further education.     

Accountability in Partnership or Partnership in Accountability: Initial teacher education in Northern Ireland

This paper analyses accountability and partnership in Initial Teacher Education for the primary school sector in Northern Ireland. In considering teacher education, the paper focuses on three higher education institutions: Stranmillis University College, St Mary's University College and the University of Ulster. Of the three institutions, the Roman Catholic Church maintains St Mary's University College while the other institutions have no religious affiliations. The paper focuses on the reform of teacher education within the British Isles and sets Northern Ireland into a context of a system of teacher education which has developed new patterns of accountability. Three sources of evidence are used to analyse accountability; firstly the perception of schools that are partners in Initial Teacher Education; secondly, the views of the Education and Training Inspectorate who are responsible for accrediting teacher education in Northern Ireland; and thirdly, the views of the three university schools of education. The paper will demonstrate how teacher education in Northern Ireland is simultaneously similar to, and different from, teacher education in the rest of the developed world. It will illuminate the dimensions of accountability in the primary school sector and show how in Northern Ireland this is heavily segregated by religious denomination.     

All Christians? Experiences of science educators in Northern Ireland

In this paper we respond to Staver’s article (this issue) on an attempt to resolve the discord between science and religion. Most specifically, we comment on Staver’s downplaying of difference between Catholics and Protestants in order to focus on the religion-science question. It is our experience that to be born into one or other of these traditions in some parts of the world (especially Northern Ireland) resulted in starkly contrasting opportunities, identities and practices in becoming and being science educators. The paper starts with a short contextual background to the impact of religion on schooling and higher education in Northern Ireland. We then explore the lives and careers of three science/religious educators in Northern Ireland: Catholic (Jim) and Protestant (Ivor) males who are contemporaries and whose experience spans pre-Troubles to post-conflict and a Catholic female (Colette) who moved to Northern Ireland during the Troubles as a teenager. Finally, we discuss the situation regarding the teaching of creationism and evolution in Northern Ireland—an issue has recently generated high public interest. The Chair of the Education Committee of the Northern Ireland Assembly recently stated that “creationism is not for the RE class because I believe that it can stand scientific scrutiny and that is a debate which I am quite happy to encourage and be part of…” (News Letter 2008). It could be the case that the evolution debate is being fuelled as a deliberate attempt to undermine some of the post-conflict collaboration projects between schools and communities in Northern Ireland.     

新时期中国对外战略的基本思路与特征

为国内发展战略的实施创造良好的国际环境和周边环境,更好地为促进人类和平与发展做出积极贡献,是新时期中国对外战略的两个重要指导原则和基本思路。新时期中国更加顺应世界发展的潮流,进一步融入国际社会;不计较社会制度和意识形态的差别,努力改善同各国的关系;开始以负责任大国的姿态活跃于世界政治舞台;其对外战略更加务实、更加灵活;战略重点更加突出,层次感更强。     

A comparison of the influence of government policy on information and communications technology for teacher training in England and Northern Ireland

Abstract

This article examines the introduction of national standards and guidelines for the use of information and communications technology (ICT) in initial teacher training in England and Northern Ireland. The context for the increased focus on ICT in teacher education is described for each part of the United Kingdom (UK). Comparisons are drawn between the two areas of the UK to show how schools and teacher training institutions have attempted to meet the standards within each political context by examining the positive features of three case teacher training courses, two in England and one in Northern Ireland. From this, inferences are drawn about the level of intervention by Government and whether greater government control has reduced or increased the integration of ICT into the cycle of teaching and learning.     

'You'd Be Wanting to Know about the Past': Social contexts of children's historical understanding in Northern Ireland and the USA

This research reports the results of two studies of young children's historical thinking, one conducted in Northern Ireland and one in the USA. In both countries, primary/elementary students learn about history in a variety of settings, including not only schools but also family conversations, historic sites and the media. The differing nature of historical representations in the two countries, however, leads students to contrasting conclusions about the purpose of learning about the past: in the USA, students emphasise that history is important so that they will know about the origin of their country and their own place within it, while in Northern Ireland students describe the purpose of history as being to learn about those who are different from themselves. In both countries, such comparative evidence about children's thinking provides educators with the opportunity to consider how they can build on and extend students' understanding of history.     

解析两次世界大战期间爱尔兰问题的演变

通过对两次世界大战期间爱尔兰问题的梳理,认为20世纪以来,爱尔兰问题因两次世界大战而得以变化,并最终演变为北爱的归属问题。两次世界大战成了爱尔兰问题发展的契机,爱尔兰问题在这一时期演变的结果主导了二战后爱尔兰问题发展的主轴。