Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the world struggled to address growing educational inequalities and fulfil the commitment to Sustainable Development Goal 4, which seeks to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. The pandemic has exacerbated these inequalities and changed how education…

Domestic violence (DV) in adult and young people's intimate partner relationships is a social and public health problem across the globe. Education can play an important and unique role in addressing DV; however, it remains relatively under-investigated. The aim of this qualitative study set in Northern Ireland, the first of its kind, was to…

Abstract In this paper, we present the findings from our critical analysis of the health discourses evident with physical education (PE) curricula in each UK home nation--England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. We carried out a critical discourse analysis of those curriculum documents that talk directly to PE teachers about how to organise,…

Conceptualisations and constructs of children and childhood are temporally and contextually grounded. Historical documents are rich sources of insight and understanding regarding how children were understood, valued and treated at various times by particular societies. This article explores the conceptualisation of children and childhood in the…

A necessary condition for a functioning democracy is the participation of its citizens, including its youth. This is particularly true for political participation in environmental decisions, because these decisions can have intergenerational consequences. In this article we examine young people's beliefs about one form of political…

This article focuses on discourses of child safety and protection of stakeholder organisations (SOs) and school pastoral care co-ordinators (PCCs) on educating young people about sexting. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with the representatives of four organisations who assist schools in the delivery of Relationships and…

This article presents findings on students' views and experiences of tiering in Northern Ireland and Wales from a children's rights perspective. It considers the extent to which tiering fulfils the rights to education, best interests, non-discrimination, and participation under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It emphasises that while…

Over 40 years after the publication of the "Report of the Committee of Enquiry into the Education of Handicapped Children and Young People," commonly referred to as the "Warnock Report," this article uniquely considers its legacy in the context of Northern Ireland. The article adopts a Foucauldian genealogical approach to…

The principles of school choice and diverse provision underpin transition to secondary education in a majority of countries. This article focuses on the potential for structural diversity to constrain rather than promote choice. Although intended to improve equity in access and quality of provision, choice-based systems serve to homogenise school…

Allport's intergroup contact theory outlines four conditions for effective contact: equal status between participants within the contact situation, cooperation, common goals and institutional support. While the literature indicates that institutional support may be a particularly important condition for effective contact, its role and impact…

Proponents argue that grammar schools enhance social mobility by allowing high-attaining pupils to attend elite schools, no matter what their social background. However, disadvantaged pupils cannot benefit from grammar schools unless they gain access to them. In this article, we use rich cohort data to investigate the strength of, and reasons for,…

While Northern Ireland strives to build a shared society, the current reality is that everyday experiences are still shaped by division along ethno-religious lines. This is particularly pronounced in the education system, where more than 92% of pupils attend separate schools. Within the predominantly separate education system, however, exists a…