Education for Mutual Understanding: Perceptions and Policy

Author(s): Alan Smith and Alan Robinson
Document Type: Report
Year: 1992
Publisher: Centre for the Study of Conflict, University of Ulster
Place of Publication: Coleraine
ISBN: 1 871206 38 3
Subject Area(s): Education, Community Relations

Abbreviations: ELB - Education and Library Board, EMU - Education for Mutual Understanding

Background to the Research

  • In 1990. the Centre for the Study of Conflict initiated a three-year research and evaluation project which concentrating on the introduction of a cross-curricular theme, EMU, to the school curriculum. The project was structured in three overlapping stages. Stage one involved research into how those within the education system perceive EMU. These perceptions and their implications for policy, are the subject of this report.

Research Approach

  • The first aspect of the research focused upon individuals who work within the support and advisory domains in the education system. Most have some responsibility for advising teachers how EMU might be developed in practice. Twenty such individuals were interviewed during the 1990-91 school year. Additionally,interviewees were also asked to log their communications concerning EMU during one specified week. This exercise provided some initial evidence about the level and form of communication within the network of individuals involved with EMU.
  • Secondly, a postal survey of all post-primary schools in Northern Ireland was carried out in June 1991 and information was sought on a number of issues including what teachers perceive EMU to be about, what sort of activity is already taking place within the school, and how EMU might be implemented in the future. As a supplement to this questions were also asked of a parent governor in each school.

Main Findings

Advisory and Support Domains

  • Within advisory and support agencies there are multiple interpretations of EMU.
  • Individuals are likely to carry an interpretation of EMU which is related to their own interests or biography.
  • Most respondents working within the statutory agencies found interpretations which associate EMU with ecumenism unhelpful.
  • There is little coordination between agencies concerning EMU.

Education and Library Boards

  • There are constraints on the extent to which ELBs will be able to support EMU, particularly in terms of providing adequate substitute cover for training.
  • Those working within Boards experiences little time or opportunity for strategic planning.
  • The only publicly available statements of policy from ELBs are brief statements which relate to the situation when EMU was not statutory.
  • There is very little documentation on EMU available form ELBs to inform schools and parents of how it will be supported.

Cross Community Contact Scheme

  • School participation in the Scheme has grown steadily since it was introduced in 1987.
  • During the 1990-91 school year over a quarter of all primary schools and over a half of all post-primary schools received funding from the Scheme.
  • The impact of EMU on schools may have increased the perception that EMU is only about contact.
  • A number of issues regarding the Scheme were raised by respondents including:
    1. what level of support to schools the Scheme will be able to sustain in the long term
    2. whether the central administration of the Scheme is appropriate in the long term
  • Many respondents felt that the Community Relations Branch should consider how it might support aspects of EMU which do not necessarily involve cross-community contact.

Voluntary Agencies

  • Movement of EMU on to the curriculum means that voluntary agencies have found it more difficult to provide training opportunities for teachers as a result of education reform.
  • Some voluntary agencies have found it more difficult to provide training opportunities for teachers as a result of education reform.
  • The funding of voluntary agencies on a short-term basis makes long-term planning and staffing difficult.
  • Voluntary agencies are concerned to evaluate their own work but need support to do this.

Post-primary schools

  • Although schools recognise the wider dimensions of EMU, the term is generally perceived as a shorthand code for community relations work. Nearly two thirds of post-primary schools surveyed have yet to develop a formal policy on EMU.
  • In the short term schools may develop EMU mainly by creating more cross community contact with other schools.
  • Most respondents were concerned that contact should be 'meaningful' and not undertaken simply because of financial inducement or for publicity.
  • The schools surveyed also saw potential for developing EMU by considering how the school ethos reflects values associated with the theme. Respondents thought this would be more achievable than securing the involvement of every area of the curriculum.
  • Over three quarters of the post-primary schools surveyed have appointed coordinators for EMU although there is some uncertainty as to what their role should be.
  • EMU has already become closely identified with particular subjects - History, English, Religious Education, Geography, Music and Art. These subjects are the best represented by teachers who are active in EMU, have attended courses or have been appointed as coordinators.
  • Members of Physical Education departments are the most involved in cross-community contact activities, although relatively few have been appointed as coordinators or have attended courses.
  • Most schools saw EMU being developed successfully by individuals within the school, supported as a second level by a small group of committed teachers.
  • Respondents did not think it very likely that all teachers will become active in developing EMU.

Training

  • Prior to education reform the bulk of pump-priming resources associated with EMU went into providing substitute teacher cover for cross-community contact rather than training for teachers.
  • One consequence of education reform is that less training specific to EMU may be available for teachers in the short term.
  • Teachers who have been appointed as EMU coordinators by schools need some immediate support to decide how best to initiate school-based training and development within their own school.
  • Teachers are not confident that they have the necessary skills to handle the community relations aspects of EMU.

Evaluation

  • Evaluation of the long-term impact of EMU is not regarded as a high priority within the formal education system.
  • Teachers are more preoccupied with evaluation in terms of assessment procedures and how these will measure pupil progress in the main curriculum subjects.
  • Individuals within the system are suspicious of 'monitoring' or 'measuring' changes in pupils attitudes in terms of community relations.
  • Throughout the system there is no clear picture of what techniques would be appropriate to support evaluation.
 

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