Integrated Education in Conflicted Societies

M. Zembylas

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781137280978
• eBook ISBN: 9781137280985
• Topic: Pedagogía
• Subtopic: Educación comparada

Academics and practitioners examine the developing field of integrated education in conflicted societies, where children who would normally be educated apart are deliberately educated together. They draw on a range of theoretical and practical frameworks, providing numerous case studies from Northern Ireland, Israel, Macedonia, and Cyprus.

1

LEADERSHIP OF INTEGRATED EDUCATION

INTRODUCTION TO PART 1

Zvi Bekerman

The first part of this book interrogates the leadership of integrated education, particularly about the skills and strategies required for success. The authors in this part are all pivotal figures in the integration movement both at the school level and at the organizational level that supports integrated education in Northern Ireland, Israel, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In their chapters, these authors thoughtfully reflect on what it takes to lead integrated education in conflicted societies while evaluating future challenges for both integrated schools and the organizations that support them.

In the first chapter of this part, Mary Roulston chooses to relate to us the many life experiences that, since an early age, shaped her educational philosophy as it is reflected today in the integrated school she leads. She discusses the opportunities she had in her early career to work with all levels of society; and to this variety she attributes the development of her child-centered approach and her empathy for and understanding of children. In Mary’s view integration, to be successful, needs to be understood in a very wide sense, one that reflects an all-inclusive child-centered approach. When discussing the many obstacles she had to overcome in creating the Millennium integrated school she leads today, the reader might be impressed by the detailed and complex descriptions Mary offers in all that relates to the hiring of teachers and the need to try and sustain the vibrancy of the school community after the first generation of pioneers leaves the school. Important things do not happen by accident, emphasizes Mary, they need to be strategically planned for them to become accepted and rooted.

Paul Caskey writes the second chapter in this part. As the campaign director of the Integrated Educational Fund (IEF) in Northern Ireland he has had the opportunity to be involved in the development of the integrated school movement there and it is from a rather macro perspective that he writes this chapter. His story is one about finding ways to finance the integrated movement; it is one that emphasizes the need for creating alliances and coalitions both with governmental and private institutions. Paul believes that integrated education should remain a community-led process; he does not believe it should be imposed on people by the government but does acknowledge that the support of the government is essential for the movement’s present and future development. Among the things he has learned, he points at the need not to become frustrated by the complexities of political realities that make legislation amendments less influential that what could be expected. His final lesson is that “we all need to be in this for the long haul.”

In the third chapter of this part, Inas Deeb and Nadia Kinani share their experience as leaders of the bilingual, binational integrated Jewish-Palestinian initiative in Israel. Nadia is the present principal of the Max Rayne Hand in Hand Sschool in Jerusalem and Inas functions as the educational director at the Hand in Hand center where she works together with school faculty on developing different aspects of the bilingual model.

The chapter offers an honest, critical, and well-balanced developmental perspective on the complexities of developing integrated educational initiatives in one of the severest areas of intractable conflict known today. Nadia and Inas first offer their perspective on integrated education, as they believe it can be viable in Israel’s conflictual setting. They analyze how the bilingual Arabic-Hebrew program is implemented in a country where both languages are officially recognized but where, at the same time, Hebrew is for all practical purposes the only language of civil life while Arabic is devoid of any public importance. They tackle the intricacies of dealing with the controversial national days of remembrance in the school and school community and finally discuss the school community and the negotiations that need to be undertaken for the benefit of the initiative among the main stakeholders—faculty, parents, NGO, and Ministry of Education.

The chapter by Noreen Campbell, presently, the chief executive of the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education (NICIE), is the fourth chapter of this part. Noreen has, through her involvement in the integrated school movement, occupied different leading positions—parent, teacher, principal, and today the leader of NICIE, the umbrella organization of the integrated schools. Through her vast experience, she has learned about the need for integrated schools to create an environment of trust in which contentious societal issues can be addressed. She has also become very sensitive to the difficulties encountered by a faculty that is being asked not only to confront a mixed religious students corps but also to teach classes in which students differ also in their socioeconomic status and in their learning abilities; the variations encountered imply the need to develop a continuous program of staff support. Moreover, Noreen discusses the importance of creating a common language through which to express the integrated school ethos as well as developing ceremonies in which to embody this ethos. She believes that being attentive to these needs can secure the success of integrated education and that these characteristics are transferable to other countries in need of developing integrated schools.

In the last chapter of this part, Ljuljjeta Goranci-Brkic reflects on the experiences of the Nansen Dialogue Centre in Sarajevo and its efforts to promote inter-ethnic dialogue and to create inter-ethnic initiatives for integrated education in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In particular, Goranci-Brkic discusses the roles of parents, teachers, students, principals, and politicians in these initiatives for integrated education. This chapter shows most forcefully the immense challenges at the structural level for developing initiatives that promote integration in schools. The initiatives take place at various levels simultaneously involving parents, local authorities, students, and teachers, and show that the process is often slowed down by political power games; yet, persistent efforts to achieve small gains, argues Goranci-Brkic, are clearly better than doing nothing.

1

THE MAGIC OF MILLENNIUM

A MILESTONE TOWARD PEACE IN NORTHERN IRELAND

Mary Roulston

As I reach the final stage of my career in education and take the time in a very busy life to reflect on the journey so far, I am stunned by the strength of feeling that tells me I have been on a journey I didn’t plan, through a series of experiences that have shaped my educational philosophy far more than I ever realized at the time, and that my final post as a principal in a grant-maintained integrated primary school setting in Northern Ireland needed me to have been through each and every one of those experiences. I can very clearly see that the ethos of the school and my leadership style has been shaped by the rich variety of posts and experiences I have been fortunate enough to have.

A brief overview of the type of work I was involved in from the age of 16, pre and post qualification as a teacher, demonstrate how each and every environment has had a considerable impact on my personal definition of integrated education. It started with a week’s placement in a children’s home, when I was a teenager, as part of community service for my Duke of Edinburgh Award, experiencing at firsthand the impact on children’s development when they have been institutionalized and have attachment difficulties. For three consecutive summers, I worked in a Colony de Vacances in France with blind children who were in care. Many of the children had additional disabilities such as autism or being deaf and dumb. I have also worked as a “surveillante” (a person who looks after the children and the dormitory before and after school) in a French boarding school and in an international school, in village schools in Northern Ireland, and also in a Rudolph Steiner School. All of these wonderful opportunities have allowed me to work with all levels of society, from the aristocracy to the most marginalized in terms of social class and disability. My child-centered approach, my empathy for and understanding of children, and my ability to work closely with parents and my personal approach to life in general were particularly enhanced by my time at the Rudolph Steiner School.

While my three sons were young I took time out of teaching to be at home with them but I then entered into another defining part of my life journey doing cross-community work through a local parent and toddler group that led to the foundation of a community association I chaired for a number of years and that was successful in accessing European funding to provide a cross-community hall and health facilities. It was through the ups and downs of this work that I really began to understand each side of the Northern Ireland community and, more importantly, that it was possible to work together successfully and harmoniously, at least most of the time!

Before I took up my present post I worked in a village school that, in line with the education system, served a community made up of one tradition only, Protestant. While I loved working with the families and children in this village, I feel it was no accident that I was drawn to the integrated sector and the most incredible opportunity of my whole teaching career—starting a new integrated school and bringing to it both a shared and a personal understanding of what an integrated school should be!

For me integrated education has so many strands. In its most simple, basic, fundamental form it is, in the context of Northern Ireland, about educating Catholic and Protestant children together. However the reality of the type of integrated school I have always sought to develop is much more complex and within this complexity is a kernel of something that is very simple to say but much harder to deliver! The kernel is that all are welcome into the school community and valued as the individuals they are. Therefore Protestant, Catholic, all other faiths and none, all social classes, all cultures, and all levels of ability and disability are actively welcomed.

I understand inclusion in its widest sense in the context of creating an all-ability and child-centered school. Delivering a truly child-centered school means, in addition to the usual shared understanding of putting the children at the center of every decision made and listening to and valuing the children’s voice, going the extra mile for those children with considerable barriers to their learning and also for those with complex emotional and behavioral difficulties. It is about welcoming children who are not always welcome in other schools.

One of the real strengths of an integrated school is that children are together from a young age and this shared school, shared nursery, shared classroom environment facilitates friendship before labels and preconceived prejudice can become barriers, and then takes the children on a developmentally age-appropriate exploration of sameness and difference, emphasizing that difference can be as positive, if not more positive, than sameness. At the same time there are opportunities to learn about and celebrate together the diverse religious and cultural events that are reflected in the whole school community.

In the context of Northern Ireland, our first integrated schools were set up within the context of the “Troubles,” where civilians, police, and army personnel were being killed and where normal daily life was subject to bombings; bomb scares; families being forced out of their homes; searches; and a very closed in, insular feeling exacerbated by the lack of tourists and visitors; the native population becoming disillusioned and leaving; and also the fear of going out in the evening.

Fortunately Northern Ireland is now on the cusp of a potentially very interesting period of change in education. The peace process has given Northern Ireland society, despite the many starts and stops, a period of a more settled and normalized everyday life. Politicians who, previously, were very vocal in protecting the sector of education associated with their own community and were clearly opposed to integrated education are now making media statements around the need for integrating schools and for sharing. It will be interesting to see what the outcome of this new outlook will be, especially with the added driving force of the economic reality that Northern Ireland can no longer sustain a segregated schooling system. Will the power of an economic shortfall in the education budget bring about the kind of changes that have the potential to be a healing catalyst for Northern Ireland society? Or will the changes be of a more superficial nature? Only time will tell!

Within the Education Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 1989 statutory support for integrated education became enshrined in legislation. As the principal of a new school and having had firsthand experience of struggles before and after the school opened, it still remains difficult to feel a real and true sense of government support, even now when the school is fully established, enjoys an excellent reputation, and is full with a waiting list for some classes.

Going back to the very beginning still brings a smile to my face! Little did I realize as I read a small, provincial newspaper reporting on a number of heated open meetings to establish a new integrated school, that I would, very shortly, be appointed as principal of this new school!

Those early days were fraught with an uncertainty that I had never anticipated. Before I start to describe the main events of those early days, I must flag that what I will be describing is not unique within our sector. In fact there is a common thread that will be recognized by any principal who has been on the same journey and for some principals within our sector this journey was even more fraught with difficulties or more prolonged. Indeed, time and time again, the delegates at our Integrated Peace Education conference outlined the details of both early and present-day struggles. As an audience we were united in our empathy, the chord of our common struggles resonating for all.

Reflecting on my earliest memories of the journey, I remain to this day stunned and in awe of those parents who felt so passionate about integrated education that they were prepared to hand over the education of their very precious children to a school that had no reputation, no building, no funding, an unknown principal, and no resources, curriculum, or policies in place! I am equally stunned by my own total belief that it would all come to fruition in time even though all the early signs were fraught with uncertainty. I had given in my notice for the safe and permanent post at the established school I had been employed in and within a very short time two very alarming situations were developing. The first was that although we had a site on which to place a mobile building, we were not going to be allowed to use it and this threw up a major problem. How could the school open if it had nowhere to go? If the school didn’t open then I would not have a job!

It was so hard to grasp why we were not being allowed to go onto a site that had previously operated as a car showroom and a furniture business, with all the associated traffic, while ten children and two staff members could not be allowed to use it. This was the beginning of discovering that the opposition, mainly political, to our fledgling school would be fierce and prolonged. This common thread of political opposition came through so strongly from each and every one of the delegates at our Integrated Peace Education conference. It is so disappointing that many politicians elected to be leaders, and government bodies, procrastinate to the point of being obstructive to the real and purposeful change that educators at grass roots level are striving to achieve.

After many afternoons and evenings searching for alternative premises we were eventually gifted a temporary lease on a large, vandalized house outside our catchment area. With only very few days remaining before school officially started there were many manual tasks to do to ensure that our new environment was clean, safe, and welcoming for the start of term. This was a crucial time for the long-term future of the school. We had ten children and we really needed to ensure that all ten children turned up on the first day. Less than ten would have had serious implications for the future of the school and would make all the difference as to whether we would receive government funding the following year.

Therefore this period of time became even busier with the need to reassure and inspire our small number of families. They needed to know that the school was indeed going to open. There needed to be discussions about an earlier than usual opening time so that being outside our catchment area was not going to adversely affect the needs of working parents. They needed to start getting to know me as a person, as an educator, as the principal and sole teacher of this new integrated school. In those very early days I had to remain upbeat and positive, no matter what the hurdles were. The ability not just to listen, but to really hear what the parents were telling me helped me to make the practical decisions that inspired both confidence and relief in the parent body. My ability to be flexible and to use my initiative stood me in good stead and the support I received from my newly appointed classroom assistant and from parents was invaluable. Through sheer necessity I very quickly learnt that this was no straightforward principal post and nothing in the job advertisement or job description cou...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Part 1 Leadership of Integrated Education
• Part 2 Starting Integrated Schools and Transformation of Existing Schools in Conflicted Societies
• Part 3 Curriculum and Pedagogy Issues in Integrated Schools
• Part 4 Moving Forward—Developing and Sustaining Support for Integrated Schools
• General Conclusion: The Future of Integrated Education in Conflicted Societies
• List of Editors and Contributors
• Index