Suchergebnisse

The purpose of this article is to compare teachers' and students' interpretations of citizenship education (CE) across different communities in conflict-affected societies. By drawing on qualitative research that was conducted in four different schools in Northern Ireland and Israel (Catholic, Protestant, Jewish-Israeli and Arab-Palestinian), we show what may be universal and particular about teaching and learning CE in these different contexts and why variations occur. Despite being a compulsory subject with a common curriculum in both jurisdictions, CE was subject to multiple and competing interpretations by teachers and students. It was variously deemed to be an empowering subject that teaches critical thinking and is relevant to students' lives, a political tool that both stirs and silences controversies, and a subject that focuses on performance and whose importance was routinely underplayed. The findings illustrate the complex entanglement of CE with the particular political and community context that shapes its interpretations.

Many commentaries on social policy in the UK assume that policy as developed in England applies to the constituent countries of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. However, the advent of political devolution in the last five years is slowly being reflected in the literature. This paper takes education policy in Northern Ireland and discusses recent policy developments in the light of the 1998 Belfast Agreement. The Agreement, it is suggested, is providing a framework which promotes equality, human rights and inclusion in policy making. Some early indications of this are discussed and some of the resultant policy dilemmas are assessed. The paper concludes that accounts of policy development in the UK, which ignore the multi-level policy-making contexts created by devolution, do a disservice to the subject.

International human rights instruments provide a legal basis for an agreed set of human values globally. These 'values' are expected to underpin the purposes and content of education. This paper aims to explore how compliance with human rights instruments and values is balanced by educational leaders in Northern Ireland where diverse interpretations of human rights are held by the main communities and managerialist principles guide education policy making. The paper argues that whilst there is a political and policy commitment to protecting human rights in education as a means of addressing the causes of conflict, this commitment is constantly threatened by interpretations of rights in the local context and a polity underpinned by managerialist principles. It is argued that managerialist concerns around budgetary constraint and academic performance frame the work of educational leaders, yet it is in retrieving the human values which underpin rights, that the potential for educational leaders to transform society through education might be best realised.