Contact and Conflict: The Question of Integrated Education

The idea that contact between members of different groups will improve relations between them has a long history. It has provided some of the rationale for such policy decisions as the racial integration of education in the USA. Within the context of the Northern Ireland conflict the question of religiously segregated education is a long-standing controversial issue although there are some well-established integrated schools. The topic is of current interest due both to the Government proposal to integrate the teacher-training colleges and to the opening of an integrated second-level school with explicit social goals. This paper reviews a number of recent investigations in Northern Ireland which have studied Protestant and Catholic children attending the same schools. Of special interest are the children’s positive attitudes to religion and their non-sectarian patterns of social interaction. It is suggested, however, that research in Northern Ireland has not yet adequately tested the contact thesis.