‘Peace Builds at the Speed of Trust? Exploring the development of ‘trust indicators’ for school-based reconciliation’

Good Relations Week Event: Report Launch

‘Peace Builds at the Speed of Trust? Exploring the development of ‘trust indicators’ for school-based reconciliation’

Date: 21st September 2023 (International Day of Peace)

Time: 11:00am- 1:00pm

Venue: Long Gallery, Parliament Buildings, Stormont Estate

Sponsors: Kate Nicholl, MLA; Co-sponsors: John Stewart (MLA) and Pat Sheehan (MLA)

Note: Registration for the event closes THURSDAY 14th September 2023 

This Good Relations Week Event will highlight research undertaken through a partnership between the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations (Coventry University) and Community Relations in Schools. The research examines the role of trustbuilding in school-based reconciliation initiatives. Trust, while taken for granted as important, has not been deeply unpacked or examined to better understand its more particular role in facilitating a move towards reconciliation.

This research examined, as a case study, CRIS’s model of peacebuilding Good Relations and Collaborative Education (GRACE) which is operationalized through CRIS’s whole school approach working with children, teachers, principals, parents and carers to involve them in Good Relations programmes such as: Buddy Up! (Pupil-based) Everyday Peacebuilding (Parents/Carers) and Growing GRACE (Principals and Teachers). One output from the research (qualitative and quantitative) was the development of a set of  ‘trust indicators’ that may be utilized to gauge how practitioners facilitate building a foundation for trust between participants. 

A panel discussion will follow the research launch  to consider: 

• The implications of this case study research not only for school-based peacebuilding but wider applicability for policy initiatives aimed at social cohesion outcomes such as reconciliation and good relations, equality and inclusion, 
• The relevancy for the 'reconciliation impact' of education initiatives such as shared education, and collaborative approaches within education. 

Research Team: Dr Charis Rice, (Associate Professor, Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations) and Dr Emily Stanton (Director of Programmes, Community Relations in Schools)