School Networks in Divided Societies: A Social Network Analysis of Shared Education in Northern Ireland

Networking in education has become a powerful strategy for delivering change at a systemic level. We examine the case of Shared Education in Northern Ireland where school networks are being utilised to change how Catholic and Protestant schools engage with one another in the context of a divided society—where school structures mirror ethnic divisions. This paper presents evidence from a mixed methods study that employed a social network analysis and semi-structured interviews to explore the patterns of teacher relationships in a Shared Education partnership. Our findings suggest that networking and collaboration can overcome systemic separation and provide an alternative model for collegial engagement in the context of a divided society.