UOA04-03: Promoting Community Cohesion and Social Integration through Inter-Group Contact

Submitting Institution

University of Oxford

Unit of Assessment

Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services
Education: Specialist Studies In Education
Psychology and Cognitive Sciences: Psychology


Download original

PDF

Summary of the impact

Hewstone's theory and research on intergroup contact has made two major contributions to UK policy on social integration: (1) Promoting community cohesion between different ethnic groups; for example, by providing a guiding principle for policy documents and survey items for the Citizenship Survey prepared by Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG). (2) Providing the theoretical base and rigorous evidence for the Sharing Education Programme (SEP) in Northern Ireland (NI), which links schools across the denominational divide, and provides opportunities for sustained contact for pupils who typically have no such cross-group exchanges. SEP is already having impact in changing attitudes in NI and elsewhere.

Underpinning research

The impacts on intergroup contact and social integration have been based on research projects directed by Hewstone during the last 11 years at Oxford (see Section 3 for examples).

Hewstone's review of evidence on the role of contact between members of different ethno/religious groups as a mechanism for ameliorating negative social attitudes, for the Commission on Integration and Cohesion (2006), drew especially on his own research. This showed: (i) the potential for indirect (e.g. knowing that other ingroup members have outgroup friends) as well as direct contact (see ref. 1 in Section 3); (ii) the specific processes by which contact works (e.g., reduced anxiety, increased perspective-taking; refs. 1-3); (iii) how contact impacts on multiple outcomes (e.g. `secondary transfer' effects of contact with one outgroup improving attitudes towards other outgroups; ref. 4).

Northern Ireland (NI) had long seemed to accept the inevitability (and, for some, the desirability) of segregated education, with most pupils attending Catholic or Protestant schools. However, surveys also revealed support from parents for some mixing, but not for integrated schools. The Sharing Education Programme (SEP) has been built (since 2007) on Hewstone's work as summarised above and in refs. 1-4. SEP enshrines the value of repeated instances of positive contact, supported by shared pupil norms and educational authorities. However, it allows pupils to remain at separate schools (accepting the importance of this to a sense of community identity, and the right to choose education within a certain religious ethos). The SEP programme offers an opportunity for pupils and teachers to cross the sectarian divide. NB: The SEP work was carried out in a collaboration between Hewstone and Hughes (Queens University, Belfast).

Hewstone and colleagues conducted a quasi-experimental evaluation study of 577 students from 14 schools in NI, to compare contact and outcomes in matched schools with and without SEP (ref. 5). This provided direct evidence of the effectiveness and impact of SEP, showing not only (i) an increase in trust and positive action tendencies towards the religious outgroup in SEP vs control schools, but also (ii) that intergroup contact improved attitudes by reducing anxiety and promoting empathy. The scale of the improvements is impressive, given the relatively recent introduction of SEP (students have only been involved for a year or so). For example, (i) respondents who participated in the SEP, on average, reported having 6% more friends from the other community than those who did not participate; (ii) for every point reduction in intergroup anxiety, respondents' attitudes improved by 6.29 points. In addition, a large-scale, ongoing longitudinal survey of contact experienced by pupils in post-primary schools across NI shows that positive intergroup contact drives more positive attitudes (ref. 6).

References to the research

1. Paolini, S., Hewstone, M., Cairns, E., Voci, A. (2004). Effects of direct and indirect cross-group friendships on judgments of Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland: The mediating role of an anxiety-reduction mechanism. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 770-786. [First field study to show the impact of extended contact, and that it is mediated by intergroup anxiety, and to do against a background of intergroup conflict in NI.] 136 citations (Scopus); doi: 10.1177/0146167203262848

 
 
 
 

2. Turner, R., Hewstone, M., Voci, A. (2007). Reducing explicit and implicit out-group prejudice via direct and extended contact: The mediating role of self-disclosure and intergroup anxiety. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 369-388. [Shows, for the first time, that contact impacts implicit, as well as explicit, attitudes, and that self-disclosure, as well as intergroup anxiety, mediates this effect for explicit attitudes.]. 252 citations; doi: 10.1016/S0065-2601(05)37005-5

 
 
 
 

3. Turner, R. N., Hewstone, M., Voci, A., Vonofakou, C. (2008). A test of the extended intergroup contact hypothesis: The mediating role of intergroup anxiety, perceived in-group and out-group norms, and inclusion of the out-group in the self. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 843-860. [First complete test of all the hypothesised mediators of extended contact, showing especially the importance of social norms.] 47 citations; doi: 10.1037/a0011434;PMID:18808263

 
 
 
 

4. Tausch, N., Hewstone, M., Kenworthy, J., Psaltis, C., Schmid, K., Popan, J., Cairns, E., Hughes, J. (2010). Secondary transfer effects of intergroup contact: Alternative accounts and underlying processes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 282-302. [Major study of secondary-transfer effects to date, including both a cross-sectional and a longitudinal study in NI, showing attitude generalization as key mediator.] 13 citations; doi: 10.1037/a0018553

 
 
 
 

5. Hughes, J., Lolliot, S., Hewstone, M., Schmid, K., Carlisle, K. (2012). Sharing classes between separate schools: A mechanism for improving inter-group relations in Northern Ireland Policy Futures in Education 10 (5). [Pilot study reporting first evaluation of SEP programme, including demonstration that SEP works via intergroup contact.] doi: 10.2304/pfie.2012.10.5.528

 
 
 

6. Hughes, J., Campbell, A., Lolliot, S., Hewstone, M. (2013). Inter-group contact at school and social attitudes: Evidence from Northern Ireland. Oxford Review of Education. DOI: 10.1080/03054985.2013.857595 (AOL 4 November 2013). [Analysis of first wave of large-scale evaluation of impact of intergroup contact in NI schools on cross-community attitudes.]

 
 
 
 

Grant Support

• Hewstone, M., Cairns, E., Voci, A., & von Hecker, U. (2003-2005). Sectarian conflict and cross-community trust in Northern Ireland. Russell Sage Foundation, New York. ($199,824)

• Hewstone, M., Hughes, J., Cairns, E., & Voci, A. (2004-2007). Direct and indirect cross-community contact and tolerance in mixed and segregated areas of Belfast: A qualitative and quantitative analysis. Central Community Relations Unit, Government of NI. (£214, 000)

• Hewstone, M., Hughes, J., Cairns E., & Jenkins, R., (2005-2008). Social identity and tolerance in mixed and separate areas of Northern Ireland' Funded by ESRC `Identities and Social Action Programme', REF: RES-148-25-0045 (£197,658).

• Hewstone, M., Heath, A., Peach, C. & Spencer, S. and Vertovec, S. (2009-14). Ethno-religious diversity and social trust in residential and educational settings. Leverhulme Trust Research Programme Grant (£1,008,235).

• Hewstone, M., Hughes, J., Gallagher, T., & Donnelly, C. (2010-2015). The longitudinal impact of cross-community contact on social attitudes: A study of pupils in Northern Ireland's integrated and segregated schools. Funded by Atlantic Philanthropies (£470,000).

During this time, Hewstone has been Professor of Social Psychology, University of Oxford.

Details of the impact

UK Policy on integration: The key role of intergroup contact (See Sources 2 and 7)
Following riots in English cities in 2001, the Cantle Report highlighted White and Asian communities living "parallel lives". The Government's Commission on Integration and Cohesion (2007) highlighted Hewstone's work on intergroup contact ("the strongest evidence that the Commission had of the benefits of such work"); Hewstone also served on the technical committee of the Government's Citizenship Survey. The importance of intergroup contact is recognised in the development of Public Service Agreement (PSA) 21, to "Build more cohesive, empowered and active communities." `Indicator 2' refers specifically to "the percentage of people who have meaningful interactions with people from different backgrounds" and highlights the need to "focus efforts upon facilitating such interaction". Hewstone's work "made a number of valuable contributions to development of the then Government's strategy for Community Cohesion."

Northern Ireland: The SEP and education policy (See Sources 1,3,5,6,9)
SEP, evaluated through Hewstone's work, promotes collaboration through core curricular activity and mixed environments to enhance educational outcomes and reconciliation (involving 130 schools and 16,000 pupils). SEP was supported in manifestos of four of the main political parties in the 2011 NI Assembly election; is identified as a priority in the Programme for Government, 2012; is supported by the main Churches; and shared solutions were included in area planning recommendations for NI school reorganisation. Hewstone's contribution is primarily in the design, implementation and analysis of the large-scale quantitative evaluation.

This work is having a major impact on NI education policy. The main Protestant Churches in NI have publicly supported shared education, and the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools has encouraged all its schools to promote shared relationships with neighbouring Protestant schools. In 2008, the Education Minister initiated a review of the Department's Community Relations policy. On the basis of evidence on intergroup contact and SEP, presented by Hewstone's team, the Community Relations policy (2010) contained a commitment to `encouraging greater sharing and collaboration across and between all educational settings on a cross-community basis'. This policy impacts all children and young people in NI. After the conference on Shared Education (December, 2012), at which Hewstone's team presented their results, the Chair of the Education Committee stated "[y]our studies informed the decision to prioritize shared education."

The SEP team has engaged with all the main political parties in NI. After the 2011 NI Assembly election a commitment that every pupil should have some experience of shared education by 2015 was included in the Programme for Government, and a Ministerial Advisory Group (MAG) on Shared Education has been established. Recommendations for area planning published by the local authorities in 2012 have included a significant number of shared education proposals.

In November 2011 the NI Executive released its Programme for Government. Sharing Education is highlighted as a priority, and Shared Education has been prioritised in the Programme for Government. The MAG reported in March 2013, and drawing extensively on the research evidence (5:6 p. 41-69) the report makes 17 recommendations which support the mainstreaming of shared education in NI to ensure that it is placed at the `heart of education policy and practice' (ibid, p.111), through, inter alia, amendment to the Education Bill to place a statutory duty on the Department of Education, and the new Education and Skills Authority, to encourage and facilitate shared education; revision of the common funding formula to include a `shared education premium'; a change in legislation to place a statutory duty on schools to comply with Section 75 of the NI Act; and support for teachers in the delivery of shared education (ibid, p.112-124). In May 2013 the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister announced a package of reforms for NI. Reflecting the MAG recommendations, the package included a commitment to start work within in next 5 years on building 10 `shared education' campuses in NI. This is likely to offer the opportunity for the shared education experience to around 50 schools and 20,000 pupils.

International impact of SEP work (See Source 4)
SEP is now (via UNICEF, NGOs, and senior officials from the Ministry of Education in Macedonia), impacting 6 Albanian and Macedonian schools in ethnically mixed municipalities. 60 additional schools are involved in a preparatory programme.

Media impact (See Source 10)
Hewstone has regularly presented his work via the media. For example, his work on merging ethnically diverse schools in Oldham featured in BBC Newsnight (2011), with a longer interview on BBC World; his work on intergroup contact was featured in BBC Radio 4's All in the Mind (2012).

Sources to corroborate the impact

Letters (available on file):

  1. From Jeremy Vincent, lead civil servant, Decentralisation and Big Society: Research & Analysis (DCLG), November 2012. Includes statement: `In conclusion...the theoretical base and use of rigorous quantitative methods in Professor Hewstone's work were drawn upon in a number of policy documents prepared by DCLG and he advised on an important government survey. The department contributes to draw upon Professor Hewstone's evidence and expertise'.
  2. From David Anderson, lead civil servant for Commission on Integration and Cohesion, July 2007. Includes statement: `the contribution you made to the work of the Commission...informed much of the chapter...as it was the strongest evidence the Commission had...'.

    3. [Both these civil servants are no longer in DCLG. For corroboration in person, please contact Helen.Connolly@communities.gsi.gov.uk]

  3. From Mervyn Storey, MLA, Chair of Education Committee, Northern Ireland Assembly.
  4. From Professor Violeta Petroska-Beska, Co-director, Center for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution, Skopje, Macedonia. Includes, referring to Hewstone's work: "...has been central to the development and operationalisation of the Macedonian project."

Documents and websites:

  1. A Report on the Sharing Education Learning Forum Conference 2012, `Supporting the Programme for Government Commitments on Shared Education'
    http://www.schoolsworkingtogether.co.uk/documents/SELF%20Conference%20Report%20Decem ber%202012.pdf
  2. The Shared Education Programme. Information on participating schools; programmes, dissemination, underpinning research. http://www.schoolsworkingtogether.co.uk/reports.html
  3. Commission on Integration and Cohesion, Final Report `Our Shared Future' (2007). Available at:
    http://collections.europarchive.org/tna/20080726153624/http:/www.integrationandcohesion.org.uk/ (Hewstone's work is cited in Note 57).
  4. `Guidance on meaningful interaction: How encouraging positive relationships between people can help build community cohesion'.
    http://www.tedcantle.co.uk/publications/041%20DCLG%20Cohesion%20and%20meaningful%20int eraction%202009.pdf
    December 2008, Department for Communities and Local Government. (Section 3 includes reference to Hewstone's work, e.g. "Meaningful interaction between people from different backgrounds has been shown to break down stereotypes and reduce prejudice. Professor Miles Hewstone presented on this to the Commission on Integration and Cohesion and summarised the evidence from social psychology research...".
  5. `Advancing Shared Education', Report of the NI Ministerial Advisory Group, March 2013 www.deni.gov.uk/index/schools-and-infrastructure-2/shared_education/shared-education-ministerial-advisory-group.htm

Media impacts:

  1. Hewstone's work on intergroup contact was featured in BBC Radio 4's All in the Mind (2012).
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00t7ppc