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This paper reports the results of research on education inequalities in Northern Ireland, carried out by a team from Queen's University Belfast on behalf of the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland. A focus group and individual interviews were carried out with key stakeholders (transgender individuals, parents of transgender students, and advocates from organisations that support transgender students) to explore and understand the contributory factors and manifestation of educational inequalities for transgender students at different stages of their education, along with potential enablers of equality. The main barriers found were: gender stereotyping in schools; a lack of awareness and understanding of trans issues; a lack of guidance for schools; inflexibility around school rules; exclusion (including self-exclusion due to feelings of not being accepted); the timing of transition; difficult enrolment processes; moving away from home; and inappropriate facilities. Enablers of education equality for transgender students included: central directives and joined-up working between government departments; training for school staff; flexibility in school practices; and a systematic approach to data collection concerning the experiences of transgender students.

Northern Ireland (NI) is emerging from a violent period in its troubled history and remains a society characterized by segregation between its two main communities. Nowhere is this more apparent than in education, where for the most part Catholic and Protestant pupils are educated separately. During the last 30 years there has been twofold pressure placed on the education system in NI – at one level to respond to intergroup tensions by promoting reconciliation, and at another, to deal with national policy demands derived from a global neoliberalist economic agenda. With reference to current efforts to promote shared education between separate schools, we explore the uneasy dynamic between a school-based reconciliation programme in a transitioning society and system-wide values that are driven by neoliberalism and its organizational manifestation – new managerialism. We argue that whilst the former seeks to promote social democratic ideals in education that can have a potentially transformative effect at the societal level, neoliberal priorities have the potential to both subvert shared education and also to embed it.