Integrated education can help create a new common ground in Northern Ireland politics, writes Professor Bernadette Hayes
Since the start of the Troubles in 1968, integrated education has been seen as the single most important long-term solution to the Northern Ireland conflict. But does integrated education work? Are those who come out of the integrated school system more moderate than those who have attended religiously based schools?
The integrated education sector in Northern Ireland is tiny. The most recent government statistics show that 94 per cent of Protestant children attend a "controlled" or state school, and 92 per cent of Catholic children attend a Catholic school, either maintained or voluntary.
Only about 5 per cent of children attend an integrated school and they are predominantly drawn from the very small ethnic minorities.
Today, there are 57 integrated schools, 38 primary schools and just 19 post-primary. As a consequence of parental initiatives, the integrated education sector has made some progress since 1989.
In 2001-2002, 10 per cent of secondary school children attended integrated schools, compared to 5.7 per cent in 1998-1999.
Although the extent of religious integration at the school level remains low, surveys suggest that there is much less segregation within the adult population.
According to the 2003 Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey, over one in 10 adults said that they had attended a religiously mixed school. When the survey asked if the school was "formally integrated" rather than just "fairly mixed", it leads to a much lower estimate of 1.7 per cent of the total adult population attending an integrated school.
It is argued that a segregated educational system leads to ignorance about the other community and, in the words of Séamus Dunn, fosters "an atmosphere of mutual distrust and suspicion".
The goal of integrated schools is to foster an understanding of both traditions; by encouraging children to understand their historical and religious differences, it is claimed that they will form enduring cross-community relations.
To what extent have integrated schools been successful in achieving these aims? Does the experience of integrated education create a middle ground? Our survey evidence, using the Life and Times and election surveys conducted on the adult population since 1998 to examine national identity and constitutional preferences, suggests that it does.
Patterns of national identity show that there are long-term effects stemming from integrated schooling in promoting more integrationist views, notably among Protestants.
Protestants who said they had attended an integrated school were less likely to endorse either a British or a unionist identity compared to those who had attended either a segregated school, or one that was just fairly mixed. They were also more likely to see themselves as "Northern Irish".
Perhaps the most striking finding in our research is the marked unwillingness among Protestants who had attended integrated schools to cross traditional boundaries and adopt the opposing identity.
Protestants who experience integrated education do occupy the middle ground of Northern Ireland politics and are willing to detach themselves from their British and unionist identity, but they will not adopt the identity of the other side.
This is not the case among Catholics, where support for Irish and nationalist identities is not as clearly differentiated by educational sector. Catholics who had attended a religiously mixed school were less likely to endorse an Irish identity.
But once again, there is a marked unwillingness among Catholics who had attended an integrated school to cross traditional allegiances and adopt the opposing identity.
Nevertheless, integrated education remains important in shaping identity patterns. It is again Protestants who had attended an integrated school who stand out as being the least traditionalist in their views. Protestants who had attended an integrated school were less likely to identify themselves as both British and unionist than those who had not.
Among Catholics, the key factor is attendance at a non-segregated school. Irrespective of the type of integrated school they attended, Catholics were less likely to identify themselves as both Irish and nationalist.
How does integrated education influence constitutional preferences? Among Protestants, those who had attended an integrated school are less likely to support the link with Britain.
In our surveys, 66 per cent supported the link with Britain, compared to 80 per cent for those not educated in an integrated school. Again, Protestants are unwilling to cross traditional boundaries in their constitutional preferences.
Constitutional preferences among Catholics are not as clearly differentiated by educational sector, although attendance at an integrated school remains important. Whereas just over half of Catholics who had attended a segregated school supported Irish reunification, just over one in three of those who had experienced an integrated education did so.
Overall, our most important finding is the willingness of Catholics to cross traditional boundaries and associate with the opposing preference. Not only does a notable minority of the Catholic community - just over one-fifth in total - support the link with Britain, but a similar proportion remain undecided about the issue.
The interaction between integrated education and community relations in Northern Ireland is both complex and contentious. A quarter of a century after the first integrated college was established, we still do not know if integrated education breaks down religious and cultural barriers. While our results cannot provide a definitive answer, they do suggest that attendance at an informally or formally integrated school has positive long-term benefits in promoting a less sectarian outlook.
Our evidence in support of this proposition is threefold. First, irrespective of religion, individuals who had attended an integrated school were significantly more likely to reject traditional identities and allegiances than those who had attended a segregated one.
Second, this finding particularly resonates among Protestants, where clear differences in identity patterns and constitutional preferences emerged between those who had attended a formally integrated school and those who had not.
Protestants who had attended an integrated school were more likely than those who had not to occupy a neutral position in terms of political identities and constitutional preferences.
Third, there are positive effects for informally integrated schooling on Catholic outlooks. Catholics who had attended a "fairly mixed" school were more likely than others to occupy the centre ground in identity politics; in addition, they were more likely to disavow bipartisan constitutional preferences.
Integrated schools can and do have an impact on the outlooks of the pupils who attend them. Our study - based on a large sample of the adult population - suggests that the positive effects of integrated schooling extend into later life.
As the numbers experiencing integrated schooling grows, these individuals have the potential to create a new common ground in Northern Ireland politics.
Further details of the research by Prof Bernadette C. Hayes (University of Aberdeen), Ian McAllister (Australian National University) and Lizanne Dowds (ARK, University of Ulster) can be found on the ARK website (www.ark.ac.uk)