Hollowing out communities: small rural schools in Northern Ireland and the threat of closure

Across Europe, the surge and prevalence of neoliberal and metro-centric education policies have resulted in the threat of closure surfacing as a major challenge facing many small rural schools (Fargas-Malet and Bagley, 2022a). In exploring the implications of this phenomenon, the chapter draws on key aspects of findings from a three-year mixed-method study of small rural schools in Northern Ireland (see Fargas-Malet and Bagley, 2022b), including data from an online survey of all small rural school principals (N=201) and five in-depth case studies. The findings reveal not only the educational impact on schools working under a constant threat of closure, but also the less well-considered wider socio-cultural impact on the close-knit communities they serve. In the context of a religiously divided post-conflict society such as Northern Ireland, an appreciation of the need for policy to acknowledge and indeed nurture the local community-based value attributed to small rural schools is deemed particularly apposite.