The role of ICT in bridge-building and social inclusion: theory, policy and practice issues

The role of ICT in bridge-building and

social inclusion: theory, policy and

practice issues

Roger Austin*

University of Ulster, Northern Ireland

This paper reports on the evaluation of a major programme which is using telecommunications to

link teachers and pupils both across the political boundary between Northern Ireland and the

Republic of Ireland and across the boundaries of ‘mainstream’ schooling and those children

in ‘special schools’. The paper examines the ‘contact hypothesis’ as a theoretical model for

educational work supported by ICT and considers the impact of the programme on both teachers

and students. It concludes that contact based on sustained curricular and social interaction has an

effect on children’s perceptions of each other. This effect is most marked when contact is between

two schools, one on each side of the border. The author suggests that the management of the

programme, based on a bi–lateral agreement between two government departments and a

partnership between two universities with other key stakeholders, provides a model of international

cooperation.

Cette communication fait etat de l’apport d’un programme majeur qui utilise la telecom-

munication pour lier enseignants et eleves aussi bien a travers la frontiere entre l’Irlande du Nord

et la Republique d’Irlande qu’a travers les frontieres tout aussi reelles entre l’enseignement

‘normal’ et celui des enfants scolarises dans des ‘etablissements speciaux’. La communication

se propose d’examiner ‘l’hypothese de contact’ comme modele theorique pour les activites

pedagogiques soutenues par l’ICT et considere l’impact du programme sur professeurs et eleves.

Elle en conclut qu’un contact base sur une interaction soutenue tant en ce qui concerne le

programme scolaire que les activites sociales se repercute sur les perceptions mutuelles des

enfants. Cet effet se remarque le plus lorsque le contact a lieu entre deux etablissements situes

dans les deux juridictions differentes. L’auteur suggere que la gestion du programme, basee sur

un accord bilateral entre deux agences gouvernementales et un partenariat entre deux universites

et divers groupes d’interesses, fournit un modele de cooperation internationale propre a etre

imitee.

Der Vortrag beschaftigt sich mit der Evaluation eines grenzubergreifenden Experiments im

Rahmen dessen durch Verwendung von Kommunikationstechnik (wie z.B. Internet, Email,

Videokonferenzen etc.) Lehrer und Schuler in Nordirland und der Irischen Republik miteinander

verbunden wurden. Ebenfalls wurde in diesem Zusammenhang ein Kontakt zwischen Schulern

von Spezialschulen und Schulern herkommlicher Schulen etabliert.Der Vortrag basiert auf der

*University of Ulster, Coleraine, County Londonderry BT 52 1SA, Northern Ireland. Email: rsp.

[email protected]

European Journal of Teacher Education

Vol. 29, No. 2, May 2006, pp. 145–161

ISSN 0261-9768 (print)/ISSN 1469-5928 (online)/06/020145-17

# 2006 Association for Teacher Education in Europe

DOI: 10.1080/02619760600617284

sogenannten Kontakthypothese ‘als erziehungs-theoretischem Model ICT-unterstutzten Lernens’.

Es wird der Einfluss des Programms auf Schuler und Lehrer erlautert, sowie die Schlussfolgerung

gezogen, dass die Aufrechterhaltung curricularer und sozialer Interaktion die gegenseitige

Wahrnehmung der Kinder untereinander fordert. Dieser Effekt wird besonders dann deutlich,

wenn zwei Schulen jenseits der Grenze miteinander verbunden sind. Der Autor argumentiert, dass

das auf einem bilateralen Abkommen zwischen den beiden Regierungen und dem

Zusammenschluss zweier Universitaten basierende Programm, ein Model fur internationale

Kooperation darstellt.

Este trabajo informa sobre la evaluacion de un importante proyecto que utiliza la tecnologıa de

las telecomunicaciones para conectar a profesores y estudiantes situados en sendos lados de la

frontera polıtica entre Irlanda del Norte y la Republica de Irlanda y, asimismo, conectar a los que

estan separados por las barreras que existen entre el area de la escolarizacion ‘convencional’ y la de

aquellos alumnos que estan en ‘escuelas especiales’. El trabajo examina la ‘hipotesis del contacto’

como un modelo teorico para el trabajo educativo apoyado por la informatica y considera el

impacto del proyecto tanto en profesores como en estudiantes. Su concluson es que el contacto

basado en una interaccion curricular y social sostenida tiene un efecto en las opiniones que los

chicos tienen unos de otros. Este efecto esta mas marcado cuando el contacto se efectua entre dos

escuelas, una a cada lado de la frontera. Segun el autor la gestion del proyecto, basado en el

acuerdo bilateral entre dos departamentos gubernamentales y la colaboracion entre dos

universidades con otros socios clave, proporciona un modelo de cooperacion internacional.

Introduction

The rapid spread of the internet as a tool for communication in schools across the

world has opened up rich possibilities for culturally enriching links between teachers

and pupils. The European Commission is actively encouraging links of this sort

through its recently launched ‘E-Twinning’ programme for schools.1 There are,

however, relatively few published accounts of how work of this sort is impacting on

teachers and learners and how this process is managed; there is some agreement

however, that the contact hypothesis, a construct drawn from social psychology, might

offer a useful framework.2 This is discussed more fully in the following section.

The Dissolving Boundaries project was set up in November 1999 by the

Departments of Education in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to use

Information Communications Technology (ICT) to link schools across the political

border on the island of Ireland. In the initial stage of the project, hardware and

telecommunications support was provided by two commercial companies, DELL

and Eircom. Since 2000, hardware and running costs have been paid for by the two

Departments of Education. The management of the project was entrusted to two

Schools of Education, one at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland and the

other in the National University of Ireland College of Maynooth. These two

universities were chosen because of similar work they had already undertaken

through a project called ‘This Island We Live On’. The objectives of the Dissolving

Boundaries project are to use ICT to facilitate valuable curricular work between

schools and through joint study of a collaborative educational programme to

increase mutual understanding. This paper offers an analysis of the project from

146 R. Austin

three perspectives: first, it examines the value of the ‘contact hypothesis’ as a

theoretical model for informing ICT related work between schools, second, it

considers the educational impact of the project on teachers and pupils and third, it

considers what lessons may be learned about the management of the project. To

make sense of these issues, a brief historical and political context is provided.

Historical and political context

Readers of this paper who are unfamiliar with the history of Ireland might wonder

why a project of this sort was needed. Great Britain had effectively controlled Ireland

since the sixteenth century but in the face of growing demands by the nationalist,

Catholic population of Ireland from the end of the nineteenth century,

independence was granted to 26 out of the 32 counties of Ireland in 1921. The

six counties that were excluded were those in the north-east of the island, counties

with a predominantly Protestant population, who wanted to remain part of Great

Britain. The creation of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland at this time

solved an immediate problem but left a legacy of suspicion on both sides and, for

many nationalists on both sides of the border, a sense that there was unfinished

business. In effect since 1921, the status of Northern Ireland and the issue of

whether there should be a reunification of the island have dominated political debate

on the island of Ireland and to a lesser extent in Great Britain.

This historical context is important for the Dissolving Boundaries project for two

main reasons: the first is that the educational systems in Northern Ireland and the

Republic of Ireland have developed in significantly different ways. This is true in the

management of schools, in the shape of the curriculum and the place of

examinations.3 In other words, any curricular links across the border involve a

significant amount of flexibility and negotiation to be successful. The political

context is also important in the sense that any cross-border contact can be seen as

‘threatening’ to those who are opposed to the development of a united Ireland. Some

‘Protestant’ schools in Northern Ireland remain extremely cautious about involve-

ment in a project which might be unpopular with a section of parents, especially

when schools are competing for pupils.4 As the project has expanded from its

original base of 26 schools on each side of the border in November 1999 to the situation

where a further 60 schools joined inSeptember 2002and another 60 inSeptember2003,

it has become more difficult to draw in Protestant secondary schools.

The project in action

The project involves special education schools (pupils aged 8–18), primary schools

(pupils aged 5–12) and secondary schools (pupils aged 11–18). The average age of

pupils involved in the project is 9.5 years in the primary school and 14.5 in the

secondary. After initial trials linking clusters of schools, evaluation in 2003 suggested

that linkage between two schools, one on each side of the border would offer richer

opportunities for sustained social and educational contact. Teachers were also

ICT in bridge-building 147

strongly encouraged to organise work between their classes by creating small teams

of 4–6 children, with each team working with a similar team in their partner school.

This advice was based on the project team’s analysis that individual ‘e-pal’ links were

difficult to sustain, that whole class links were unworkable but that the small team

approach would provide diversity of contact within a framework that teachers could

manage.

When schools agree to join the project, they are provided with video-conferencing

facilities and with access to an asynchronous computer conferencing service.

Teachers are brought to a planning conference where they are introduced to a

partner school and given time to plan an outline project. There is no predetermined

‘content’ to be studied but teachers are given advice on the importance of both

enabling social contact to take place and to work towards an agreed ‘end product’,

often a joint powerpoint presentation or a joint web site. The flexibility of this

approach allows teachers to judge what might work best in terms of joint activity; in

general teachers have avoided topics that are explicitly controversial or divisive, at

least in the early stages of their involvement. Some, however, have started to

consider ways that citizenship issues might be introduced. Teachers are provided

with regionally based ICT training and invited to attend a review conference towards

the end of the year to share good practice. Each school receives a small grant to help

their costs and to support a face-to-face meeting of pupils. The impact of this

contact is the focus of an on-going piece of research.

After their first year of involvement, teachers are encouraged to continue to work

together but with a lower level of support from the project team whose energies are

directed to supporting a new cohort of schools each year. The new cohort consists of

10 ‘special schools’, 30 primary schools and 20 post-primary schools. The

‘experienced’ schools are, however, invited to planning and review conferences,

given a smaller grant and this approach has improved the rate of retention in the

programme. In 2004–5, 80% of schools which had taken part in the previous year

continued their participation.

Theoretical issues

At the heart of the Dissolving Boundaries programme is the contention that certain

types of contact between teachers and children can provide both educational and

social benefits. The theoretical principles that lie behind this assertion are drawn

primarily from social psychology and in particular from the ‘contact hypothesis’. In

its original form, Allport (1954) suggested that contact between groups might lead

to more positive feelings between members of the group when a number of con-

ditions for successful contact had been met. As Stephan and Stephan (1984)

expressed it;

Due to the information exchange, intergroup interaction … can increase knowledge

about outgroup members and reduce intergroup anxiety, which in turn broadens the

perceptual field to allow impressions of outgroup members to become more accurate

and more favourable.

148 R. Austin

In other words, the process of exchanging information between groups, increases

knowledge of the ‘outgroup’, and this experience, by helping to widen perspectives

and provide accurate knowledge about the ‘outgroup’, increases the possibility that

impressions of the ‘outgroup’ will become favourable. Pettigrew and Tropp’s (2000)

summary of the contact hypothesis confirmed that in the right conditions, contact

could reduce bias between groups. Necessary conditions are that contact should be

long term rather than short term, between groups rather than individuals, between

people of equal status, supported at an institutional level and based on cooperation

rather than competition.

From the mid-1990s researchers began examining the extent to which the contact

hypothesis might be used to evaluate contact that was virtual rather than real.

Meagher and Castanos (1996) reported that in a computer-mediated conferencing

(cmc) link between Mexican and high school students in the USA, Mexican

students’ attitudes towards USA culture grew less positive though the students felt a

greater commonality with the American students as individuals. Postmes et al.

(1998) and Postmes, Spears and Lea ( 2002) found that intergroup communication

via the internet led to greater polarization when the groups were ‘depersonalized’ as

opposed to ‘individuated’. These findings are important, touching as they do on the

issue of how inter-school links can provide an experience that is ‘personal’ for each

participant and also one that is mediated through group-to-group interaction. Group

interaction allows pupils to have a better sense of the varied composition of the

‘outgroup’, refining any perceptions, positive or negative, that were based on purely

individual contact.

Sundberg (2001), reporting on links in the USA between five urban and rural

schools in Illinois with students aged 10–11, 13–14 and 15–16 also noted that ‘some

students revealed an increased (supposedly more knowledgeable) negative percep-

tion towards the communities and individuals they had been in contact with’.

However, he also pointed to the potential importance of the Common Ingroup

Identity Model (Gaertner & Davidio, 2000) where students from different schools

might develop a superordinate identity while not losing their positive original group

identity. Two other points from his work have potential significance for the

Dissolving Boundaries programme. He also suggested that geographical distance

lessens feelings of threat and anxiety and conversely that ‘when groups are in

historical or immediate geographical competition, increasing group members’

perceptions of common ingroup identity is the only realistic strategy for reducing

bias’. As we shall see, this approach was part of the design of Dissolving Boundaries

from the outset in 1999.

Other researchers have reported positive outcomes from ICT enabled links;

Mollov and Levi (2001), writing of virtual contact between Israeli and Palestinian

university students who were studying Islam and Judaism through email exchanges,

concluded that this one-to-one religious dialogue was a means for building Israeli–

Palestinian understanding. Glaser and Khan (2005), while arguing that the potential

of the internet to facilitate prejudice reduction through intergroup contact was

unclear, pointed to the more positive research findings of Pettigrew and Tropp


(2004) and Amichai-Hamburger (2004). The latter identified some aspects of the

internet, such as its accessibility and anonymity that might overcome obstacles

associated with the creation of positive intergroup contact.

In terms of the relevance of this research for the Dissolving Boundaries

programme, two further points are significant. The first is that most of the contact

described in the research to date has been either entirely or predominantly based on

textual interaction. Glaser and Khan (2005) argue that as the medium for

interaction shifts to more multimedia (i.e. audiovisual) transmission, their somewhat

pessimistic analysis of the power of the internet to reduce prejudice may need to be

reviewed. It should be noted that video-conferencing interaction was built into the

design of the Dissolving Boundaries programme from the start.

Methodological issues

The second is that the research methodology employed in the majority of these

studies used pre-experience and post-experience essays and questionnaires with the

students to determine whether there had been changes to the levels of knowledge

and perception of the participants. A different, more ethnographic approach was

adopted in the evaluation of Dissolving Boundaries which sought to capture the

perceptions of teachers and pupils during their participation in the programme.

Pupil data was gathered through interview in a representative sample of schools and

this was supplemented by analysis of pupil messages in the computer conference.

The sample of schools was selected on the basis of high, average and low usage of

computer conferencing.

Additional data was gathered from teachers through both questionnaire and

interview. This was regarded as a significant area of research since the programme

team wanted to locate Dissolving Boundaries in the broad context of teacher

professional development and in analysing the teachers’ role as potential agents for

change. In taking this approach, the team took note of the assertion in the research

on the contact hypothesis that contact needed to be given institutional support. In

short, having individual teachers who were enthusiastic participants was a necessary

but not sufficient condition for success if the school as an institution did not support

the aspirations of the programme.

The way that the Dissolving Boundaries programme is organised makes use of the

contact hypothesis to shape its overall management; the programme clearly meets

three of the five constructs, namely work built around cooperation, joint activity

for at least a year and links based around group-to-group contact rather

than individual to individual. The fourth proposition, that contact should be

between people of equal status, requires further comment. Evidence presented in

the following section indicates that contact between groups of roughly equal

ability and age often work well but there are also examples of highly effective

links between special needs students and those in mainstream education. The

final issue, the extent of institutional support for the programme, is a variable

that is considered as part of the following section on special needs and social

inclusion.

150 R. Austin

The educational impact of the programme

In examining the effect of this programme on teachers and pupils, the researchers

have taken account of wider debates about the role of ICT in teaching and learning.

In particular, they have considered the work of Istance (2004 a,b) and McCluskey

(2004) related to the role of ICT in ‘re-schooling’ (Istance, 2004a, b; McCluskey,

2004). They have used the term ‘re-schooling’ in their different scenarios about

schools of the future to describe a process in which schools could become ‘core

social centres’ or ones where they are revitalised around a strong knowledge agenda

in a culture of innovation, experimentation and diversity. In this scenario, teachers

are part of a wider local, national and global community supported by digital

connectivity linking the school to Further and Higher Education. In what sense can

the Dissolving Boundaries programme be said to have helped to transform learning

or in any way contribute to ‘re-schooling’ in the sense of providing a better defined

purpose for learning? We use the term ‘transforming’ learning here to mean that

some applications of ICT go well beyond merely ‘automating’ or indeed ‘enhancing’

learning. Transformation implies that ICT is making a fundamental change to the

nature of teaching and learning and, in the case of Dissolving Boundaries, we suggest

it does this through an emphasis on those ICT applications that place a premium on

cooperation, collaboration and intercultural understanding.

Intercultural understanding

Since the start of the programme, research has been undertaken on the effect of the

collaborative work on teachers and students; in the 2002 evaluation of the project

and based on teachers’ assessment of the effect of the project on their pupils, the

project had most effect on pupils’ ‘motivation’ and ICT skills. ‘Cultural awareness’

came fifth in importance from a set of 10 possible aspects. In the 2003 report

however, which included more specific data from the pupils themselves on this

question, pupils commented explicitly on increased cultural awareness emerging

through the project. One male primary school pupil in Northern Ireland for

example, used space at the end of a questionnaire in 2003 to write,

It shows to everyone not just to say I don’t know her so I hate her, but to talk and learn

about someone [sic].

Another, in a similar school in the Republic of Ireland wrote:

I think Dissolving Boundaries helped me to get to know people more and not judge

them by their history and appearance. Thanks.

Interestingly, also in the 2003 report, primary-school-aged children in the project

were more likely to perceive that the pupils in their partner school were ‘similar’ to

them than was the case with the older students in post primary education. Here, and

particularly among boys, it was the differences between them that were perceived to

be more significant than the similarities. While girls were more likely to be frustrated

than boys at the lack of rapid response to messages posted into the computer


conference, they found it ‘very easy’ to understand that other pupils might have

different ideas (49% male, 73% female) and ‘quite easy’ to accept that they might

want to do things differently (43% male, 58% female). Equally, in response to a

question about whether the exchange of information in an on-line student cafe had

helped them develop friendships, 86% of primary-aged pupils agreed with this

compared to only 34% of the older students who thought this was the case. It is not

clear whether these differences are the result of age related views on what constitutes

‘friendship’ or whether the easier integration of project work into the primary

school day made the project experience overall more satisfactory for the younger

pupils.

In the 2004 report, 68% of teachers interviewed rated the impact of the

programme on ‘North–South understanding’ as either ‘very significant’ or

‘significant’. The greatest impact was noted among primary school teachers with

75% in the above categories. One teacher commented that being involved in the

programme opened up her students’ eyes ‘to a human side of Northern Ireland,

different from what they learn from TV and even sterile and removed history texts’.

One of the secondary students said:

We have broken the barrier and we are talking freely. Either groups [sic] are not afraid to

say anything about their religion.

A teacher summarised the experiences in 2004 as follows:

The project taught us students and teachers alike that we are all equals trying to do the

same things, devoting ourselves to educational pursuit and recognising our similarities

despite differences in conditions of service for teachers and resources available for

students.

We can say that pupils and teachers agreed that working together with counterparts

in another country had allowed them to acknowledge and accept that others might

approach a common task differently, and when opposing views were held that these

would be more readily tolerated. This is emphatically a long way from an exchange

of superficial messages and suggests that the programme is starting to impact on

pupil values and attitudes.

Embedding ICT skills

By far the most important effect on teachers was a dramatic improvement in their

ICT skills and the integration of ICT into the normal pattern of teaching and

learning. At least one reason for this was that another teacher and another class

relied on work being sent or messages being posted. As one teacher said in the 2002

report:

When you’re working independently, I suppose if you meet difficulties you might

choose to go back to a more reliable method, but when you’re working collaboratively,

there is pressure on you to make it a success for your own benefit and for the pupils.

Teachers, particularly in primary schools, commented on how the ICT skills that

children were learning in the Dissolving Boundaries were being transferred to other

152 R. Austin

areas of learning. They also commented in the 2002 report on how preparing work

for a distant audience had helped to improve their children’s sense of self-esteem and

confidence.

Collaborative learning

Two other features of the work carried out in project schools are relevant here: the

first is the added impetus the project has given to the practice of collaborative

learning, both within schools and between schools. We use the term ‘collaborative

learning’ to describe a partnership where there is much more than simply an

exchange of information between two schools. Most projects are based on the

principle that teachers and pupils are engaged in a joint investigation of a topic,

where each side has something to add to the understanding of the issue. One

example from many, was the work done by two schools studying the impact of the

Second World War in their locality at a time when Northern Ireland was fully

involved in the British war effort while the Republic of Ireland was neutral. In

another example, two sets of primary age pupils were engaged in writing a creative

story and had to negotiate the narrative and the characterisation through both on-

line discussion and real time video links. This engagement can lead to disagreement

and the need to find ways of resolving differences; we maintain that this dimension,

the resolution of conflict through discussion, has a high value.

The second is the ways in which teachers perceived their own role to be changing;

one of them commented in the 2002 report:

The project has improved my teaching, especially group work. It has made me much

more aware of the different dynamics within and between groups … and of the different

personalities.

Another commented on how the project was reinforcing a move to a more facilitative

role:

I’m more facilitative and it’s filtering through everything. I can sit the children down

and they can get on without me. They’re well aware of their time limits and they work

out how much time to spend on each bit to make sure they get finished.

Before reaching any conclusion about whether what has been described above

amounts to transformation or constitutes evidence for ‘re-schooling’, some analysis

is offered on the ways that the Dissolving Boundaries project has impacted on social

inclusion.

Special needs and social inclusion

As we noted at the start of this paper, relatively little has been published on the

overall use of ICT to link schools. This is less true for the use of ICT in special

schools where Mykytyn (1998) and Thorpe (1998) have pointed to the motivational

role that video-conferencing can play with special needs students. Our research

confirms this; teachers have commented in a uniformly positive way about how the


project has been of benefit to them and their pupils, particularly through the use of

video-conferencing. Like their counterparts in mainstream schools they commented

on how live video-links had improved pupil motivation. One teacher reported in

2003 that.

Motivation was fantastic—they were very enthusiastic about doing the topic work.

Confidence and self-esteem, yes. They come in on Thursdays all spruced up with their

uniforms on and smelling of aftershave and deodorant.

Between 2002 and 2004 there has been a steady growth in the number of special

needs children taking part in the project, either within mainstream education or in

special schools. The effect of the programme on these children was a particular focus

of the 2003 report which has been reported on in detail elsewhere (Abbot et al.,

2004). For the purposes of this paper we wish to draw attention to two other

significant findings. The first relates to the role of the project in promoting social

inclusion. One teacher, working in a class with both special needs students and those

that had not been given a statement of special educational needs, was quoted in the

2002 report:

I have quite a large proportion of children with special needs and they feel every bit as

much a part of this project as anyone else. We split the class groups into mixed ability

for the project, and it has made the higher achievers realise that the other children’s

contributions are just as valuable. It’s fascinating to see special needs children speaking

out in a group, and a child from the top group praising them. It’s great for their self–

confidence. When you hear special needs children actually asking you to do something

in Dissolving Boundaries, particularly ones who realise what their position is in the

class, it’s an incentive.

Other evidence for the role of the programme in supporting social inclusion comes

from a link between a mainstream primary school in the Republic of Ireland and a

special school in Northern Ireland. One of the teachers commented in the 2003

report on the challenges this represented, given the evidence5 that links are most

likely to work where children are matched for age and ability:

I think some people thought the special/primary link wouldn’t work. It depends on the

focus of the adults involved. We were very clear as to what we wanted to get out of it.

Interaction has been first class. The teachers planning it had vision and of course

preparation had to be fairly solid. Overall we’ve been delighted with the link from the

teaching and learning, as well as the social perspective.

Further evidence for the success of this approach emerged in 2004; pupils in a school

for deaf children in the Republic of Ireland worked with children in a mainstream

school in Northern Ireland. They used text-based computer conferencing to work on

a history project on imperialism and starting to use video-conferencing to

communicate through sign language. The deaf children taught their northern

neighbours basic signing as part of this process. While it is conceivable that links of

this sort could happen without ICT, we suggest that it is the presence of the

communicative tools of video-conferencing and computer conferencing that acts as a

stimulus for developing this sort of socially inclusive practice.

154 R. Austin

There are two potentially important factors in explaining why these links worked

as well as they did. In the link between the school for deaf children and the

other school in Northern Ireland, the mainstream school was an ‘integrated’

school, already committed to the education of both Catholic and Protestant

children under the same roof. But the ethos in integrated schools often extends

well beyond respect for religious differences; it is increasingly true that this

ethos embraces respect for all children, irrespective of their social class, gender

or educational need. In other words, at an institutional level, respect for diver-

sity is part of the value base of the school. In this link there was also an interes-

ting ‘trade-off’ between the students taking part; while those in the mainstream

school had a more detailed knowledge about the topic under investigation

(imperialism), those in the deaf school had communication skills (signing) which

were of interest to the northern students whose overall experience in their

integrated school made them alive to the value of learning a new form of

communication.

These values are not, of course, confined to only one type of school; many head

teachers in mainstream schools seek to promote an ethos of this sort and this is at

least one factor in explaining the success of the link between the primary school in

the Republic of Ireland and the special school in Northern Ireland. The decision to

forge this link was made by the two head teachers meeting at a planning conference.

In this instance, their leadership roles in the school and an obvious chemistry

between them as people created the conditions for such an unusual link to be

successful.

In short, the evidence from this aspect of the programme suggests while the

contact hypothesis is a useful theoretical model for inter-school links, we need to

qualify the issue of ‘equal status’ by suggesting that at both institutional level in

schools and at the level of individual teachers, links that are based on different but

equal status can flourish where there is a real commitment by the schools involved to

the equality agenda.

The second finding is the effect of video-conferencing and a distant peer audience

on the development of student skills. All but one of the project teachers thought that

the presence of a peer audience had a beneficial effect on written and oral skills. One

teacher reported in 2003 that the pupils ‘edit and revise their work before

conferencing and are at the age when they don’t want to let themselves down or

be embarrassed. They want to come across as ‘‘cool’’’. Many teachers commented

on improved communication skills as a key outcome, and one of very great

importance for special education students as they seek to make their way in the

world when they leave school. One teacher in Northern Ireland put it like this in the

2003 report:

Through using video-conferencing, I’ve seen my own pupils’ listening and attention

improve. At the start of the year, I’d say ‘Put your things down and come over here’,

and no one would move. It was as though I had not spoken. So the Dissolving

Boundaries project was very good for getting pupils to listen, sit still and pay attention

… these are very important things in special schools.


Another said that:

One pupil who would not get out of her chair to go to a computer is now first over. The

difference it has made to her is amazing and it has actually improved her writing

because she wants to write more.

Overall, teachers in special schools reported on a range of improved communication

skills; these comprised improved conversation etiquette, listening more carefully,

posing appropriate questions and better eye contact.

So in concluding this section on the work of the project with special needs

children, we can point to a number of significant achievements in terms of social

inclusion and learning benefits for those involved. We suggest that in the context of

schools seeking to provide learning opportunities for all their children, irrespective of

need, Dissolving Boundaries’ use of ICT offers a transformative paradigm.

Taken with the professional development we noted earlier, the impact of the

project on pupils’ ICT skills and the progress in terms of cross–border under-

standing, it might be argued that Dissolving Boundaries is contributing to re-

schooling.

Project management and policy

The size and complexity of this project and therefore its potential to impact on

educational policy and practice, has led to a management structure which may hold

lessons for other initiatives of this type both in Europe and elsewhere in the world.

Three features are discussed here.

First, the two departments of Education in Belfast and Dublin are responsible for

securing the resources to fund the project and they are represented on the project

steering committee with the two project directors, one from the University of Ulster

in Northern Ireland and the other from NUI Maynooth in the Republic of Ireland,

who have overall management responsibility for the project. The steering committee

meets three times a year and decides key strategic issues. The importance of this

committee is that it is the expression of political will by two governments to support

this initiative. In effect they have to point to the educational achievements of the

project to justify its future funding to their own finance departments.

Secondly, day-to-day running of the project is carried out by the project team

which consists of the two project directors with one full-time coordinator in the

Republic of Ireland and two part-time staff in Northern Ireland. They play a vital

role in supporting schools, helping to mend fences when contact has become

disjointed or dislocated and disseminating good practice through conferences and

the programme web site. These staff, all experienced teachers and trainers, are based

in the two universities referred to above. This was no accident; locating the project in

two Schools of Education that have responsibility for both initial and continuing

teacher education ensures that the experience of the project is rapidly disseminated

to those in teacher training.

Furthermore, one key priority for the project team is the annual evaluation of the

project and this research dimension to the project fits comfortably into the research

156 R. Austin

culture of the two universities. The three reports which have been produced so far in

October 2002, September 2003 and October 2004 have been distributed to all

stakeholders and formed the basis for further dissemination through academic

publications. This contrasts with other models of project management where

external evaluation is seen as a necessary function undertaken by an outside agency.

In Dissolving Boundaries, evaluation is seen as part of the function of the project

team whose published findings are subject to external scrutiny through the process

of academic peer review (Austin et al., 2003, 2004). We contend that the active

involvement of the project team in supporting schools, in resolving technical issues,

in the management of planning and review conferences for teachers and in project

evaluation is a vital component in promoting the sustainability of this type of work.

Other ICT projects which have been driven by commercial players have been

inclined to restrict support to the provision of hardware and technical help; the

lesson we have learned is that the pedagogic application of ICT to link schools

requires sustained support and analysis.

Thirdly, the project has key strategic links with national agencies responsible for

the delivery of ICT policy and implementation. In Northern Ireland this involves

both the ‘Classroom 2000’ team whose responsibility lies in delivering a managed

learning environment to schools and the ICT advisory staff of the five Education and

Library Boards who support teachers’ use of ICT in the classroom. It is these ICT

advisors whose knowledge of their schools enables them to identify those that are

most likely to benefit from participation in the project. Similarly, regional ICT

advisors in the Republic of Ireland identify schools for the project and support them

as part of their overall relationship with teachers. The importance of these

arrangements should not be underestimated; the Dissolving Boundaries project

does not sit outside national policy for ICT. On the contrary, it is recognised as

being part of those policies and the partnerships described above. All contribute to

the project being grounded in both classroom practice and ICT policy formation.

This is particularly important in the context of wider institutional support as an

enabling factor in creating the conditions for ‘contact’ to be successful.

In concluding this section on project management, it is worth stressing that the

motor that drives the project is a bilateral cross-border national agreement, but one

which was influenced by earlier trans-European school partnerships (Austin, 1992).6

The European Commission’s Socrates and Comenius programmes that support

school links within the European Union were based on the requirement that links

must involve at least three countries. The accession of ten new member states to the

EU in 2004 is an opportune moment to reflect on what policy issues might be

illuminated from the Dissolving Boundaries Programme in terms of ICT-assisted

school links. The emerging evidence from this programme, drawn from evaluation in

121 schools, is that one-to-one links are the most successful for primary school

children and those in special schools. Such links, based on multiple groups of 4–6

children in each school working together, provide real social contact as well as

opportunities for authentic learning of curriculum topics. This also holds true for

younger pupils in post-primary schools; multilateral links appear to have the best


chances of success for older post-primary students. The European Commission’s

recent policies on e-learning and specifically on ‘e-twinning’ between schools mark a

significant departure from previous policy which had insisted that at least three

member states had to be involved to receive support through the Comenius and

Socrates programmes for school links. E-twinning, however, is encouraged between

at least two schools in two European countries; according to its official website:

E-twinning can be defined as a long-term partnership where at least two schools from at

least two different European countries use ICT to carry out some form of pedagogically

relevant activity together. It can occur at several levels: an exchange between two

individual teachers, two teams of teachers or subject departments, two librarians or two

head teachers. The e-twinning vision foresees educational partnerships where a large

number of teachers, school managers and support staff will engage in a multi-level

activity. The intention is that the staff of two schools interact for an extended period of

time. A wide range of disciplines, curriculum topics or even staff-related professional

development should be involved.

We see in this policy statement a welcome recognition that the involvement of the

whole school in a link is a key dimension to potential success; in effect, to return to

the language of the contact hypothesis, it is the institutional support over a sustained

period of time that creates the necessary conditions for success. In terms of the re-

schooling agenda, we can also note the significance of this in terms of how it

supports teacher professional development where schools are seen as focused

learning organisations. As the European Community rolls out this programme, what

conclusions might be drawn from the experience of the Dissolving Boundaries

programme?

Discussion and conclusions

The first conclusion is that a clear understanding of the contact hypothesis is a useful

framework for links between schools, especially when due note is taken of the

implications of treating ‘equal status’ as including the sense of equal but different.

This is extremely important if the evidence of successful joint work involving special

needs pupils is to be widely replicated. While some links between special needs

pupils in two different schools have been shown to be successful in the Dissolving

Boundaries programme, we would wish to underline that links between special

needs pupils and those who do not have special needs can also work well, provided

that the teaching staff are committed to inclusive practice and equality of

opportunity.

The second conclusion is that a carefully managed programme using ICT to link

schools can deliver substantial educational benefits, not least of which is enhanced

intercultural understanding. The role of real-time video-conferencing links between

schools is an important component of such contact. Research by Hewstone and

Cairns (2005) in Northern Ireland is starting to underline the importance of

carefully structured contact between young people as a necessary condition for

attitudinal change. At the same time, research by Barton, McCully and Conway

(2003) has shown the limitations of textbook reform as a means of changing young

158 R. Austin

people’s views about contested history. In other words, transforming pupil attitudes

through curricular work in citizenship is most likely to happen when there is contact,

either virtual or real. This conclusion may have policy implications beyond the

European Union and find resonance with agencies like the OECD, the World Bank

and UNESCO which are seeking to reform and re-build educational policy, often in

places which are emerging from ethnic or political conflict.

The third is the importance of the programme team in supporting schools.

Without this level of support, there are risks that links between schools are difficult

to sustain and that the impact of the programme may remain superficial and its

promise unfulfilled.

The final conclusion is the critical role of evaluation to measure the impact of ICT

enhanced links; in the context of hard questions being asked by Reynolds et al.

(2003) about whether the costs of ICT have delivered commensurate results,

research from the Dissolving Boundaries programme suggests that it offers a model

for transforming learning in the wider context of re-schooling for the needs of the

twenty first century.

Notes on contributor

Roger Austin has coordinated an extensive number of international educational

programmes since 1986 designed to use ICT to build bridges and to support

social cohesion; he has published extensively on the role of ICT in teaching and

learning and is co-author of a book on E-Schooling to be published in 2006.

Notes

1. Available online at: http://www.etwinning.net/ww/en/pub/etwinning/index.htm. This is part of

the EU’s eLearning Programme for the effective embedding of ICT in education and training

systems 2004–2006, available online at: http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/programmes/

elearning/programme_en.html

2. Among the few are Cifuentes and Murphy (2000). See also Gage, Nickson and Beardon

(2002).

3. The management of schools, for example, is based in Northern Ireland on the principle of

parental choice, with parents sending their primary school age children to either ‘maintained’

(Catholic) schools, controlled (Protestant) schools or a smaller number of ‘integrated’ schools

(Catholic and Protestant children together) or Irish medium schools. At the age of 11, children

may take a state 11+ examination for entry to grammar schools which are also predominantly

‘Catholic’ or Protestant’. Those children who do not pass the 11+ exam attend ‘high schools’

which are again essentially ‘Protestant’ or ‘Catholic’ in their composition.

4. This issue is becoming more acute both because of the increased competition from integrated

schools and because of an overall decline in the school population. Families in Northern

Ireland, as elsewhere, are having fewer children.

5. 2003 report. Fifty-three per cent of the primary-aged pupils said that those in their partner

schools were the same age as themselves. Of those who were not the same age, virtually all

would have preferred them to be the same age.

6. The European Studies (Ireland and Great Britain) project was set up in 1986 and involved

links between schools in Northern Ireland, England, the Republic of Ireland and mainland

Europe.


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