Shared society 

This panel discussion explores the role of education in divided societies. What needs to happen in the classroom and in the structures of the education system to promote a shared and integrated society? How do we build on new models of sharing, cooperation and integration to deliver long term improvements in the quality, equity and sustainability of the system?

Contact the Schools Think Next team for more information on the series.

“Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and the smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through it lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine a new world. And ready to fight for it.” Arundhati Roy, ‘The Pandemic is a Portal’, FT, 3 April 2020

Panel

The panel was made up of: Professor Cathy Gormley-Heenan (Chair), Deputy Vice Chancellor, Ulster University Professor Tony Gallagher, Professor of Education, Queen’s University Belfast Yael Maayan, Director of Education, Abraham Initiatives Dr Anne Looney, Executive Dean, Institute of Education, Dublin City University John McCloskey, Head of Religious and Integrated Studies, Shimna Integrated College.