Compare Vol. 37, No. 5, October 2007, pp.

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The management of pupil difference in Catholic-Protestant and PalestinianJewish integrated education in Northern Ireland and Israel
Claire McGlynn*a and Zvi Bekermanb
a

Queens University, Belfast, UK; bHebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel

This paper considers issues related to integration in education, specifically those related to the integration of ethnic/religious populations in conflict. The case study we will use is the educating together of Catholic and Protestant children and Palestinian and Jewish children in two troubled societies, Northern Ireland and Israel, where children are normally kept segregated within the education system. Using a multi-theoretical approach the paper presents data collected in a parallel study of principals, policy makers and stakeholders in the two contexts. Whilst there are striking similarities between integrated education in Northern Ireland and Israel there are also clear differences around the management of pupil diversity which are critically teased out in the paper. It is argued that a cross-fertilization of theoretical perspectives is necessary both to analyse integrated school settings and to support those involved in these ventures. Keywords: Cultural diversity; Integrated education; Peace education

Introduction In countries emerging from protracted ethnic conflict, the integrating of cultures through education would appear a hopeful initiative for challenging conflict but there are many attendant challenges, some of which will be highlighted in this study. Integrated education is defined here as the education together, in equal numbers, of children, who are more usually educated separately in countries that have suffered from protracted ethnic or religious conflict and which provides opportunities to develop respect and understanding for alternative cultures. As such integration is interpreted as a way of mixing, of living interdependently and participating fully in a shared society, whilst maintaining cultural distinctiveness. These are the values of integration as described by the initiators of integrated schools in Northern Ireland and Israel. It is hoped that by comparing integrated education efforts in two conflict-ridden
* Corresponding author. School of Education, Queens University, 69-71 University Street, Belfast, BT7 1HL, UK. Email: c.mcglynn@qub.ac.uk ISSN 0305-7925 (print)/ISSN 1469-3623 (online)/07/050689-17 # 2007 British Association for International and Comparative Education DOI: 10.1080/03057920701420882

690 C. McGlynn and Z. Bekerman countries we will not only contribute to understanding of relevant theories, but also that we might assist in developing the policy needs of integrated schools. A comparative study of these two contexts may provide useful lessons for other conflicted societies considering integrated education as a peace initiative. A number of theoretical perspectives may assist in an exploration of the issues raised in this study. Firstly contact theory (Allport, 1954: Pettigrew & Tropp, 2000), which aims to reduce prejudice and promote intergroup acceptance and the sometimes contradictory strategies employed in the contact process (Hewstone, 1996) has been employed to interrogate inter-group encounters in conflict situations. Allports contact theory (1954) suggests that by bringing together individuals from opposing groups under optimal conditions, intergroup conflict can be reduced. Four conditions for contact have been identified namely the equal status of groups, the requirement for co-operation, the avoidance of social competition and the legitimization of the situation through institutional support (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2000). A further perspective is provided by acculturation theory. Traditional conceptualizations of acculturation take a unidimensional approach contending that individuals must relinquish cultural characteristics in order to gain characteristics from other cultural groups for cultural and social adaptation. However contemporary conceptualizations take a multidimensional approach that place both cultures on different continuums indicating an individuals ability to maintain their culture of origin while adopting characteristics from other groups deemed appropriate for cultural adaptation (Berry, 1995) and have been used to demonstrate that this integration/biculturalism is the preferred option of minority groups seeking to participate fully in society (Berry, 1995; Berry, 1997). Berry conceptualizes acculturation as occurring in strategies (assimilation, marginalization, separation and integration) where individuals make determinations about maintaining cultural characteristics and the amount of contact needed with dominant group members to obtain a suitable means of adaptation. Research on the topic of acculturation has indicated that individuals unable to reconcile these cultural changes often experience acculturative stress resulting in reduced mental health outcomes among some groups (Berry,1995). Social identity (Tajfel, 1978) and selfcategorization theories (Turner 1991) may also inform the issues raised (McGlynn, 2001; Bekerman, 2005a). A further perspective that has been applied to integrated education (McGlynn, 2003; Bekerman, 2004; McGlynn, in preparation) is that of critical multicultural theory (Sleeter & McLaren, 1995; Kincheloe & Steinberg, 1997; Mahalingham & McCarthy, 2000; Nieto, 2000) which proposes that a celebration of diversity divorced from a serious questioning of social inequality may be harmful. Liberal forms of multiculturalism support the belief that individuals from diverse race, class and gender groups share a natural equality and a common humanity (Kincheloe & Steinberg, 1997, p. 10). However if commonalities are stressed rather than differences, an attendant danger is that the promotion of cultural invisibility might fail to address issues of race, sex or class bias and hence undermine attempts to build

Management of pupil differences 691 democracy and inclusion. Critical multiculturalists such as Nieto (2000) would argue declares that democracy and ethics must be grounded in recognition that power is unequally shared. Liberal multiculturalists counter this by claiming that criticism of dominance alone is inadequate and that positive ideals such as liberty and equality need to be endorsed (Duarte & Smith, 2000). The management of diversity is a significant challenge to integrated schools in conflicted societies and a critical consideration of this should add to our understanding of the applicability of multicultural, as well as contact, acculturation, social identity and self-categorization theories to these contexts. This study considers issues related to the educational integration of ethnic/ religious populations in conflict, using the integrated education of children in Northern Ireland and Israel as a case study. The study analyses data gathered through in depth interviews conducted with principals of integrated schools and educational officials involved in integrated education in both countries. This method was chosen as it was considered most suitable to elicit personal perspectives on our research questions around the perceived contribution of integrated education to peace and approaches to the management of pupil difference in integrated schools in the two countries. The theoretical perspectives outlined above will be brought to bear on the data collected. Integrated education in Northern Ireland Progress towards a more peaceful society in Northern Ireland has been painstaking, characterized by a lack of trust on all sides and a struggle to reinstate local government rule. Indeed some commentators have observed that the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 has resulted in greater political and social segregation. Gallagher (2005) argues that the overprivileging of difference by the peace process has left little space for a discourse of the common good. However new policy strongly encourages the building of cohesive communities, emphasizing that separate but equal is not an option (OFMDFM, 2005, p. 20). This would appear to have implications for a segregated education system, not least in the current climate of demographic decline. Integrated education was established in Northern Ireland with the opening of the first planned integrated post-primary school by parents in 1981. Although fifty-seven schools have since been established education remains largely segregated with children either attending Catholic maintained schools or de facto Protestant controlled schools. New planned integrated schools are grant maintained [GMI], whereas existing controlled schools that transform to integrated status are known as controlled integrated [CI]. Under the 1989 Education Reform (Northern Ireland) Order the government has a duty to meet the needs of parents requesting integrated education. Each integrated school is led by a principal, who can be either Catholic or Protestant. Only 18,000 children (6% of all pupils) attend integrated schools with the phenomenon described as voluntary integration by parental consent rather than compulsory desegregation (Gallagher & Smith, 2002).

692 C. McGlynn and Z. Bekerman Recent research efforts indicate that integrated education may impact positively on identity, outgroup attitudes and forgiveness, with potential to help rebuild the social cohesion fragmented by protracted conflict (McGlynn, 2001; Montgomery et al., 2003; McGlynn et al., 2004). There is evidence however that sensitive issues around religion and identity are avoided in some integrated schools and that opportunities for prejudice reduction are missed (Donnelly, 2004; Hughes & Donnelly, in press). Montgomery et al. (2003) suggests three general ways in which integrated schools approach the concept of integration, namely passive, reactive and pro-active. Integrated education in Israel The Jewish-Palestinian conflict remains perhaps the most potentially explosive of conflicts in Israel, placing the Jewish majority (80% of the population) and the primarily Muslim Palestinian minority (20%) at perpetual odds. Israeli Palestinians, though officially offered full rights as citizens, have suffered chronically as a putatively hostile minority with little political representation and a debilitated social, economic and educational infrastructure (Ghanem, 1998). The Israeli educational system is controlled by a strong and centralized bureaucracy run by the Minister of Education who is judicially and politically responsible for the operation of the educational system and for the enactment of laws related to education. (Nir, 2002). The socio-political conflict is also reflected in the Israeli educational system which is divided into separate educational sectors: nonreligious Jewish, religious national Jewish, orthodox Jewish and Arab, all under the umbrella of the Israeli Ministry of Education (Sprinzak et al., 2001). Al-Haj (1995, 1996) demonstrates how educational policies are designed to secure Jewish cultural hegemony in line with Israels self definition as a Jewish State while supporting the Zionist ethos among Jewish students and the inferiority of its Palestinian citizens, with the educational system serving as a mechanism of control (Mazawi, 1994). Given the context the idea of creating Palestinian-Jewish coeducation is a daring enterprise. In 1984 the first integrated school was created in Neveh Shalom, a small Palestinian-Jewish settlement in the vicinity of Jerusalem (Gavison, 2000; Feuerverger, 2001). In 1998 the Center for Bilingual Education in Israel [CBE] established two integrated schools one in Jerusalem and the other in the upper Galilee. In 2004 a third school opened in the Palestinian village of Kfar Karah bringing the number of integrated schools to four. The pupil population of these schools is approximately 1000 students and they are recognized as non-religious schools supported by the Ministry of Education. Their curriculum is the standard curriculum of the state non-religious school system, with the difference that both Hebrew and Arabic are used as the joint languages of instruction. The schools employ an additive bilingual approach, which emphasizes symmetry between both languages in all aspects of instruction (Garcia 1997). All classes are taught and led by two teachers, a Palestinian and a Jew. In addition there are two co-principals one Palestinian and one Jewish who share responsibility for school management and

Management of pupil differences 693 leadership. These schools, still considered a curiosity, must pioneer solutions to the multiple curricular problems raised by mixing Palestinian and Jewish populations. These problems have to do with cultural and identity borders and with historical discourse and interpretations, including the ones which sustain the present violent conflict (Bekerman, 2003b, 2003c, 2005a, 2005b; Bekerman & Horenczyk, 2004). Methodology This study was conducted over the same six-month period in 2005 in both Northern Ireland and Israel. In Northern Ireland the sample for this study was made up of principals from a sample of more than 10% of the 57 integrated schools, namely three primary (one Grant Maintained Integrated [GMI] more than ten years old, one GMI less than five years old and one transformed Controlled Integrated [CI]) and three equivalent post-primary schools. Six schools from across Northern Ireland were selected as a convenience sample of the 57 integrated schools at the time. Three of the principals would be perceived as Catholic and three as Protestant. In addition central officials from both the Department of Education and other governmental and non-governmental institutions with responsibility for integrated education, were interviewed, giving a total of twelve interviews. Given the small numbers of schools in Israel, that is four in total, the Israeli sample comprised all eight co-principals. In addition the sample included the directors of the non-governmental organization responsible for three of the four schools [CBE] and three of the four officials from the Ministry of Education charged with supervising the schools. Thus the thirteen interviews conducted in Israel cover the main individuals concerned with guiding the planning, implementation and evaluation of policies with regards to integration and the management of diversity in the integrated schools. In Northern Ireland only a sample of the school sector was included so care must be taken with generalizations to all integrated schools. It is attempted to address this deficit by reference to previous studies in other integrated schools. To this end we have drawn on the knowledge gained from a number of previous studies of the integrated schools in Northern Ireland (McGlynn 2001, 2003, in preparation; Montgomery et al 2003; McGlynn et al., 2004) and the bi-lingual schools in Israel (Feuerverger, 1998; Gavison, 2000; Feuerverger, 2001; Bekerman, 2003b, 2003c, 2005a, 2005b; Glazier, 2003, 2004; Bekerman & Horenczyk, 2004;). Using a common interview schedule in both Northern Ireland and Israel, intensive semi-structured interviews of between one and two hours were employed to allow for flexibility, exploration in depth and to facilitate the emergence of rich qualitative data. Themes included exploring perceptions of the contribution of integrated schools to peace, the management of pupil difference, current priorities and concerns and the values and principles informing school ethos and practice. The interviews were conducted according to qualitative ethnographic principles: the interviewer remained focused on a number of topics that seemed relevant to the study, but allowed subjects to tell their stories without binding the interview to a

694 C. McGlynn and Z. Bekerman fixed agenda of questions. All interviews were taped, transcribed and then analysed according to the qualitative methods described below (Silverman, 1993; Mason, 1996). We carefully analysed the data, looking for patterns and thematic issues of relevance, which were then coded to allow for further analysis. The first codification, prepared independently by each of the two researchers involved, raised multiple categories which needed to be narrowed down for further analysis. A second reading of the recorded materials allowed us to systematically reduce the categories by combining like terms and eliminating redundant ones. High levels of agreement between the coders were reached after thorough discussions (Glassner & Loughlin, 1987). Thus we arrived at six themes from which we created our final coding system out of which two, namely the contribution of integrated schools to peace and the management of pupil difference, are reported in this paper. In line with naturalistic critical perspectives (Carspecken, 1996), the final coding scheme was further checked for validity and reliability through member checks. Participants were presented with our coding themes and asked to comment on them and challenge the categories chosen. Findings Although the data gathered offers a variety of themes to develop, in this paper we will focus mainly on the contribution of integrated education to peace and managing difference in integrated schools. Whilst only a few direct citations are given due to limitations of space, the findings reported below represent a summary of the authors interpretation of the data collected. The excerpts from the Israeli cohort have been translated from Hebrew by the second author. Contribution of integrated education to peace Principals in both Northern Ireland and Israel, although managing schools of varying type, size, location and stage of development in contexts with differing current levels of conflict, are united in their conviction that the shared daily experience of learning in an integrated school breaks down barriers, develops friendships and broadens the mind of the children in their care:
It certainly does break down barriers between people of different religionswe have local marriages and everything coming from these kids. (Principal, established CI postprimary) The idea is very simple it states that instead of learning separately we learn together this way things happen just by themselves the children learn together, play together, invite each other to visitand barriers fall (Jewish co-principal)

Furthermore they see their schools as impacting positively on the wider family circle:
You are not just touching the child who comes or the parents who comeyou are reaching out to the wider community. You are engendering debate with grandparents

Management of pupil differences 695

and friends and next-door-neighbours and cousins. (Principal, established GMI postprimary) The real importance is that we are touching people outside the immediate circle of students who are of first importance we touch wider circles in the society, the childrens parents, the villages that surround us (Palestinan co-principal)

Whilst the officers of the Northern Irish government departments are keen to promote the role of all schools in developing a more peaceful society, they perceive that the strength of the integrated schools is the active embracing of diversity:
One thing about the integrated schools herethey actually celebrate their differences as opposed to schools which are maybe mixed schools where its not talked about, its not upfront. (Officer, Department of Education, Northern Ireland)

The harsh Israeli reality, the ongoing conflict and the centralist tendency of the educational system make the situation somewhat different. Though at this point all school supervisors express support for the integrated initiative and praise it for its declared aims, at the same time they recognize the need to follow its development carefully. They realize the schools need to confront difficult curricular issues related to the historical contested narratives of the groups involved, aware that in the segregated educational system the Palestinian narrative goes unrecognized:
The school warms my heart Im full of appreciation for the effort invested by the parents and the staff and Im very supportive still the school faces many challenges that need to be dealt with care I follow their development intensely seriously and with care. (Jewish Supervisor, Ministry of Education)

To this end the Israeli integrated schools have developed ceremonies remembering special events in the Palestinian narrative such as the Nakbe commemoration and they have started developing a history curriculum which presents both narratives. In addition there are some informal activities in which the Palestinian perspective is explored by visits to the sites of forcefully evacuated or destroyed Palestinian villages. Such work is delicate, not least as official policy of the Ministry of Education does not recognize the need to present the Palestinian narrative. Principals in both Northern Ireland and Israel are convinced that parents demand a good academic education for their children, with the community relations benefits sometimes coming as a secondary or even irrelevant by-product:
Parents are primarily looking for something they feel will be a good education for their children and if that happens to be an integrated school then thats fine. (Principal, new GMI post-primary)

In Israel these issues become more accentuated for the Palestinian minority which suffers from structural inequalities which place them in a situation of perceiving the integrated schools as the only place where their children might get a good education within the national system:
It is true that parents who send their children to the school, in both groups, belong to rather liberal political perspectives but clearly they are all interested in getting their children a good education remember that for Palestinian parents there might be few other options to secure their childrens good education. (Palestinian co-principal)

696 C. McGlynn and Z. Bekerman There may then be significantly different constructs of integrated education subscribed to by school stakeholders with resultant different expectations of its contribution to peace. Principals stress that any gains with regards to improvements in community relations as a result of integrated education may be long term rather than short term:
Obviously some people think it is the simple and straightforward answer that if tomorrow all schools became integrated, that in ten years time, everything, the problem would be solved and that is not the case. (Principal, established CI postprimary) We are indeed contributing to bettering the present conflict situation in our area but we do not have illusions, we realize much more is needed than just integrated schools to find true solutions still we are an important step in the right direction (Jewish coprincipal)

The construct of principals is first and foremost of a school with high academic standards. Parents in both jurisdictions fundamentally want the best education for their child and tend also to focus more on academic outcomes. Government officials, however, appear to hold the view that all parents sending their children to an integrated school are highly committed to social integration and that integrated schools always prioritize integration. Principals in both Northern Ireland and Israel appear to feel a tension between pressures to provide a good academic education and the obligation to provide an experience for their pupils that is ideologically distinctive from other educational options. Expectations and indicators of success and failure will thus vary accordingly between the stakeholders in these integrated education efforts, indicating a clear need to define a model that outlines realistically what might characterize good integrated education and what it may have to offer to conflicted societies. A number of principals in Northern Ireland explain that integration can be pushed out by an assessment-led system and by practical demands such as securing permanent accommodation and recruiting new staff:
The ethos I think has to continually be a high priority because if you dont keep it a priority it will get pushed to one side when there are so many other things going on. (Principal, established GMI post-primary)

It is evident that the integrated schools, particularly the very new ones, have a lot to contend with:
I worked until one last night and I dont leave here until eight at night, its absolutely crazy. (Principal, new GMI post-primary)

The Israel principals confront similar issues of parental expectations underlying the importance of academic excellence and their contrasting views regarding the place of bilingualism. Jewish parents do not necessarily see Arabic literacy as essential, whereas Palestinian parents see Hebrew literacy as of utmost importance for their childrens future academic success in the monolingual Israeli society. Parents are not always well tuned into other integrated school priorities. On the other hand certain curricular changes (for example those accounting for the historical narratives of both

Management of pupil differences 697 represented groups) whilst supported by parents, might not be so by government officials:
When the school initiators wrote down their dream all was easyimplementing it is something different there is a basic agreement around the big goals (inclusion, recognition) but on the specifics (bilingualism) things are not so clear and parents do not always align fully with our efforts. (Jewish co-principal) The school success is clearly dependent on achieving their multicultural goals but also, and this is very important, the schools need to be measured against our (the Ministry of Education) set standards. (Jewish supervisor, Ministry of Education)

Integrated schools in both jurisdictions are taxed by how they might incorporate such challenges within and through the ethos of an integrated school. From the Northern Irish data it becomes clear that there are a range of interpretations of integration (for example passive, reactive and proactive as found in previous studies, Montgomery et al. (2003), Loughrey, Kidd and Carlin (2003)) which may in turn influence the nature of self-evaluation:
We have fifty seven models of integration at the minute to have fifty seven different models means a parent going into X or Y School will experience a very different integrated school than a parent going into Z School. (Officer, Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education, NICIE)

No such studies exist yet for Israel and from the interviews conducted for this study and multiple other interviews conducted by the researcher (over 120 interviews conducted as part of a long standing research effort since 1998, see Bekerman and Horenczck, 2004) it becomes apparent that for the most part principals of the integrated schools in Israel share rather similar interpretations of what integration should be. Any minor differences found to date relate to differences between the Jewish and the Palestinian principals, with the latter usually expecting more in terms of bilingual success and a multicultural approach that offers true recognition to national rights and cultural expression for the Palestinian people. Managing difference in integrated schools In Northern Ireland the data reveals a number of factors likely to influence the practice of integration but also that principals recognize the importance of continuing to work towards greater integration in the school setting:
Every year we try to look at integration in terms of where were at now and what were doing. (Principal, established GMI primary)

The issue of constantly reminding children of their differences is brought into question, whilst in Israel the various stakeholders continue to express the need to adhere to the policy of emphasizing and strengthening group identities:
If youre always so aware that what youve got in your class is difference and youre always so aware that what youve got to do is deal with that difference, youre in an artificial place. (Officer, NICIE)

698 C. McGlynn and Z. Bekerman

We are as committed to learning about each other and respecting each other as we are committed to strengthening each groups identity.(Jewish co-principal) We are proud that our children take pride in their ethnic belonging pride in ones group is essential for the aims of our school. (Palestinian co-principal)

In Northern Ireland the principals tend to perceive integration in liberal multicultural terms with an emphasis on commonality, although there is some evidence of a more plural approach with an emphasis on cultural difference in some of the schools:
Our integration is more about ensuring that were all inclusive, all-ability, ablebodied, disabled Its about feeling confident about the differences and embracing those differences. (Principal, established GMI primary)

The Israeli principals appear to share more plural interpretations of integration, although the Palestinian principals may have higher expectations in terms of multiculturalism and a more equitable representation of the Palestinian case. There appears to be a greater variation in the emphasis (or not) on cultural difference across the much larger integrated sector in Northern Ireland than in the small integrated sector in Israel. One reason for variation in integrated education practice in Northern Ireland might be the location and context of the school and it is clear from the principals in the Northern Ireland study that the schools are situated in areas of greatly varying degrees of local opposition/support and sectarian tension:
I think the integrated schools in more conflicted areas have a really tough time we dont come up against a lot of the difficulties that other schools would. (Principal, established GMI primary)

It is also apparent that the schools are at different stages of developing their practice with regards to integration and that this might be reflected in the type of integration practiced. Whilst development towards proactive practice might occur at a different rate depending on the school context it appears that principals recognize that progress on this journey is imperative and yet due to a variety of interpretations of integration, the destination is not always clear. The four GMI principals state that they constantly remind their staff and pupils of the importance of integration in practice, suggesting that integration can exist as a theme in parallel with academic priorities:
The person who is doing the principals job needs to be bringing people back and reminding them of the fact that we are an integrated school. (Principal, established GMI primary)

There is evidence also of a desire to encourage integration in the two CI schools. One CI principal expressed frustration at being constrained by his board of governors who think that he is embracing integration too quickly:
Sometimes it has been difficult because of the nature of transformation to get fully involved in things but we are at this point now where we are going into everything to try and take things on (Principal, established CI post-primary)

Management of pupil differences 699 In schools that have been integrated for longer there may also be an issue around a normalization effect, identified by principals who perceive this as a mark of a schools success, where the new normal becomes integration. The external segregated world becomes the abnormal and issues of who is Catholic and who is Protestant within the school become largely irrelevant:
I would worry that there has been a bit of a watering down of it once the integrated school gets up and going the children, staff and parents can become complacent about the fact that were an integrated school. (Principal, established GMI primary)

This is qualified however by two GMI principals who speak of the need to continually advance understanding of what integration means in practice. The two CI principals suggest that constant awareness of difference is not desirable and in general they appear more reluctant to place an overt emphasis on difference than the GMI principals:
I think it belittles them to sit them down and say weve got two different backgrounds, two different traditionsthey know exactly where theyre coming from. (Principal, established CI post-primary)

NICIE itself (see above) concedes that constant awareness of difference is an artificial situation. It would appear then that the management of difference is an important variant in integrated schools that may change as a school becomes established. It remains to be seen if approaches that emphasize either categorization or decategorization will result in different pupil outcomes. Considering the importance of social identification in Northern Ireland, a critical discussion of such strategies is important. The situation in Israel is both similar and different. It is similar in that as the schools become older, what at the beginning was an ongoing anxiety about the initiative and its meaning, with time becomes normalized and in the second generation parents tend to become less involved in the school activities. This is in a sense counterproductive and works against some of the basic aims of the principals who believe the integrated schools need to be true community enterprises with strong parental involvement:
We need the involvement of the parents, it is central for us now things are workingparents are less and less involved, they do not even participate much in the parents discussion sessions (Palestinian co-director, CBE)

The Israeli context is different however because the conflict between Palestinian and Israelis is perceived similarly throughout the country, rendering the location of schools little of an issue regarding their perspective or understanding. Thus in all schools the idea of mutual recognition and respect is emphasized together with the need to base these on a strengthening of group ethnic/national identity. In this sense the Israeli schools work by essentializing the same identity and cultural premises that have been widely criticised in critical multicultural theorizing (Bekerman, 2003a, 2004). It is perhaps the only way these schools can currently exist in such a conflict situation:

700 C. McGlynn and Z. Bekerman

The conflict is always present I remember in October 2000 (violent events in Israels northern area) it was so difficult we have no choice, we need to work hard on each groups identity and also push each group to get to know more about the other in a way it is always the Jews the ones that need to learn more Palestinians know more about the Jews but we need to be balanced otherwise people will raise their eyebrows. (Palestinian co-principal)

Moreover in a recent study at the Israeli integrated schools, though well aware of their ethnic/national/religious affiliation, the children seem not to be strongly oriented towards ethnic identity and its categories in their everyday interactions. Thus the least that can be stated, is that environments can be organized which do not call upon identity to be prominently displayed and that the bilingual school is one such place. What needs to be questioned then is if the adults (parents, teachers, etc) are able to confront this new reality which allows for identity to stay in the background (Bekerman & Tabak, in preparation). Our data then indicates that for integrated schools in conflicted societies the attention to and management of pupil difference creates significant challenges for both policy and practice. Discussion In the integrated schools in both Northern Ireland and Israel stakeholders are convinced that the daily experience of learning in an integrated school breaks down barriers, develops friendships and broadens the mind of the children. The data suggests that there may be different constructs of integrated education subscribed to by various stakeholders and that expectations may vary accordingly. In both jurisdictions principals experience a tension between parental expectations of a good academic education for their children and their own and others ideological expectations of the school with regard to peace-building. The extent to which an emphasis should be made on difference is brought into question in Northern Ireland, whereas in Israel the stakeholders express an ongoing commitment to adhere to a policy of emphasizing and strengthening group identities. Whilst there are striking similarities with regards to the urgent need to overcome suspicion of the other, the level of parental involvement and the challenges for religious education in both contexts, there are also clear differences with regards to the social equity of the actors, the levels of current violence, the sizes of the sectors and their foundational ideologies. A couple of key differences are evidentunlike Northern Ireland, Israel has yet to initiate structural change with regards to integrated education and moreover Israel is challenged by the issue of bilingualism, which renders the current form of integrated education expensive and unsustainable on a larger scale. The functioning of the integrated schools can be conceptualized through a variety of theoretical paradigms including peace and co-existence, multiculturalism, bilingualism, contact, social identity and acculturation theories and it is argued here that psychological theoretical perspectives alone are inadequate. If we restrict ourselves to singular theoretical approaches we run the risk of oversimplifying the complexity of human identity and interaction and may miss the very possibilities that

Management of pupil differences 701 would give hope. Most of all we should never underestimate the creative potential of children educated together in conflict situations. Whatever the varied interpretations of integrated education by the stakeholders, it remains that the children attending integrated schools in both Northern Ireland and Israel have opportunities that are not afforded to the majority of children in their respective contextsthey are able to go to school and interact daily with the other. In this sense stakeholders seem to subscribe to folk theories of contact, in line with the contact theorizing developed in the introduction (Allport, 1954). However identity theories, such as the ones submitted in our opening remarks, may also be useful to our analyses as we explore the socializing effects of educational contact. Central to Tajfels Social Identity Theory (1978) is the idea that aspects of self are derived from the changing social categories one perceives oneself to belong to. In the context of Northern Ireland movement between the predominant Catholic and Protestant groups is virtually non-existent (Cairns, 1989). The two groups appear to be mutually exclusive and little if any recognition is given to membership of groups alternative to these two categories. It has been suggested that new frames of self-construal may be generated by exposure to alternative social identities (Weinreich, 1989). There is ample evidence in Northern Ireland of the extension of social identity into the private self (Turner, 1991). Connolly, Smith and Kelly (2002) indicate that Northern Irish children as young as three to six years old may hold sectarian attitudes. In contrast to research carried out in other societies children in Northern Ireland do not misidentify their social membership, perhaps because they have a positive perception of their social identity. Bekerman and Tabak (in preparation) indicate that the children attending the Israeli integrated schools also do not misidentify their group identity. This contrasts sharply with the view that personal identity is a key feature of modern society (Giddens, 1992) and raises questions as to how identity is acquired and the influence that integrated schools may have on this process. The acquisition of social identity may be considered to be a complex ongoing process (Berger & Berger, 1972) which would suggest that individuals do not passively accept their identity, but are actively involved in the continuous defining and redefining of it. Identity may thus be understood as the socialized part of self, a complex balance between general and individual components. However theories of social identity and self-categorization suggest that people in conflict situations tend to perceive themselves primarily as members of a social group and less in terms of the individual components of identity. Thus approaches to the management of difference in integrated education may be crucial in terms of how individuals learn to mediate their identities in different social contexts. Psychological theories have indeed something to contribute towards the development of strategies and pedagogies which can help overcome mistrust and fear between the communities involved in integrated education initiatives. However, psychology and psychologizing theoretical perspectives alone are insufficient. Traditional psychology (Billig, 1991; Harre & Gillett, 1995) positions individuals and selves on the inside of that which is human and for the most part renders it

702 C. McGlynn and Z. Bekerman essential and inflexible. While social psychology, despite its name, seems not to have been able to transcend a perspective in which the individual as social becomes not an individual but a group, has totally neglected the need to contextualize and historicize its subject of study (Bekerman, in press). For the most part these theories seem to rest on reified conceptions of culture and identity and do not reflect the complexity and potential combinations and outcomes of individual interaction. Integration constructswhile plausible for surface behaviours which are amenable to codeswitching, as is the case with cuisine, language and musicmight not be amenable to other more important and defining aspects of culture, for example, religion, sexual norms, hygiene, child-rearing, etc. which are not open to code-switching. In these contexts, bicultural theories are limited if not impossible (Berry, 1995; Berry, 1997; Rudmin, 2003). Moreover to overcome these limitations we suggest that multicultural theory can help us to explore some of the approaches to the management of difference seen in this study (McGlynn, in preparation). In the Israel integrated schools the mainstream articulation of multiculturalism would appear to be pluralist multiculturalism (Kincheloe & Steinberg, 1997). Diversity, history and cultural heritage are celebrated and prized, but the context of politics and power is absent and the unequal status quo may remain unchallenged. Kincheloe and Steinberg suggest that pluralist multiculturalism promises an emancipation it cant deliver, as it confuses psychological affirmation with political empowerment (1997, p. 16). By comparison critical multiculturalism concerns itself with the way in which human relations are shaped by power and the aim is to produce individuals with an understanding of themselves as social beings, whose political opinions, socio-economic class, role, religious beliefs, gender role and racial self-image are all shaped by dominant perspectives (Kincheloe & Steinberg, 1997). As such it may provide a better guide for integrated education than liberal or plural models. This form of multiculturalism leaves no space for neutralityit is unashamedly egalitarian and committed to the elimination of social injustice. Proponents argue that the liberal multiculturalism more apparent in the Northern Ireland study acts to dilute difference and seeks to maintain consensus and sameness (Duarte & Smith, 2000). In the Israeli integrated schools the violent reality dictates a policy that requires teachers to deliberately reproduce culture whereas in Northern Ireland more liberal perceptions of integration are evident but may unintentionally promote cultural invisibility. A combination of theoretical perspectives might allow us to conceptualize and evaluate models of integrated education that, through the thoughtful management of diversity, may provide young people with the opportunity to explore their personal and social identities and also to reduce their hostility towards the outgroup. A previous study of the past pupils of integrated schools in Northern Ireland demonstrated that both personal and group identity exploration and alternative attitudes to the outgroup emerged as long term affects of integrated education, as did new forms of self-construal (McGlynn, 2001). The new identity form described was a shared integrated social identity, not a common national identity. What we tend to see in this current study, in the main part, is a liberal multicultural approach

Management of pupil differences 703 in Northern Ireland integrated schools and a plural multicultural approach in Israel. It may be that liberal multicultural models may be more likely to result in the formation of new common identities and that plural models may affirm existing identities, but this remains to be investigated further. Conclusion This paper suggests that there is a need for those involved in integrated education efforts to look to a combination of theoretical perspectives for guidance on their policy needs and for academics to support them in their journey. The integrated schools challenge our theoretical imagination for they compel us to consider specific individual experiences as well as individuals and their group affiliation. Crossfertilization between present paradigmatic perspectives and their better adaptation to the need to account for individual behaviours in all their complex details and potential outcomes might be the direction to take if we want to assist integrated/ bilingual education. However we would do well to remember that, whilst education can reflect and support change, by itself it cannot bring about what is truly needed the structural changes that underpin equity. References
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