Serving divided communities: Findings from a survey of principals of small rural primary schools in Northern Ireland

Previous studies suggest small rural schools experience a range of challenges relating to their size, financial difficulties and geographical isolation, and they are often viewed negatively because of these (Beach & Vigo Arrazola, 2020). On the other hand, small rural schools have also been found to exhibit a range of strengths, such as developing and maintaining social capital (Autti & Hyry-Beihammer, 2014; Bagley & Hillyard, 2014); playing a critical role in the economic life of a community (Halsey, 2011); or serving as a meeting place and ground for network building (Kearns, Lewis, McCreanor, & Witten, 2010).
There has been virtually no research specifically focused on small rural schools in Northern Ireland. Although these schools are facing similar issues to those in other countries and jurisdictions, particularly in terms of the risk of closure or amalgamation, the Northern Ireland context is remarkably unique, especially when considering the legacy of the conflict and the segregation of the school system. Rural communities have been relatively under-researched here, compared to their urban counterparts. The Small School Rural Community Study has been set to fill this gap.
The poster will present the findings of a survey of principals of small rural schools in Northern Ireland, which was conducted between May and June 2021 as part of this study. The focus will be on the challenges these schools face and their engagement with the communities they serve. We selected the schools based on their size (number of school pupils enrolled: with 105 pupils or less) and their location (situated in settlements with a population of less than 5,000 and areas of open countryside). Of 201 invited schools, 91 took part scattered all over Northern Ireland.
We will highlight here two main findings. Firstly, we found that many of the challenges faced by small rural schools in Northern Ireland are similar to those found in other parts of Europe and further afield, e.g. financial pressures and lack of funding, staff’s intense workloads and declining pupil numbers (Fargas-Malet & Bagley, 2021). Secondly, we found that these schools are very much embedded within their mostly segregated communities (as most principals described these communities as segregated) and rooted within a place. Most of these schools are segregated serving very specific ethno-national religious communities. The great importance of religious institutions in these rural communities was highlighted as well as their key role in the schools. The findings raise important broader questions as to the extent to which the current system of schooling is able to contribute to the building of a more integrated society.