Constraints on the Handling of Controversial Issues in Northern Ireland Post‐Primary Schools

Abstract

AbstractThe purpose of the study was to discover the extent to which Catholic (N=125) and Protestant (N=77) post‐primary school teachers participating in a social studies curriculum development project in Northern Ireland were constrained from teaching controversial issues of a social, religious or political nature. A method for ranking teacher, school and community constraints is presented, and the results of a survey of 202 teachers are reported. The results suggest that there is widespread support for handling controversial issues in the curriculum, although Catholic teachers are more favourable to such teaching than Protestant teachers. A high degree of concordance (rho=0.94) was found in ranking constraints when communal groups of teachers are compared. The most important constraints are ‘teacher factors' such as ‘lack of knowledge or skills', and ‘teacher's own prejudices'. Teachers regarded communal constraints such as ‘fear of paramilitary groups' and ‘disapproval of the church’ as having least importance. Controlling for religion, teachers differed significantly in the ranking of three constraints. Catholics believed their ‘own personal identity’ more important than Protestants (P<0.05); as well as ‘disapproval of the church’ (P<0.001). Protestants felt that ‘disapproval of fellow teachers' was more important as a barrier to success in dealing with controversial issues than Catholics (P<0.001). The implications for curriculum development, particularly in political and social education are discussed.