General Conclusion

Abstract

In March 2012, a team of academics, practitioners, and nongovernmental organizations gathered in Belfast to discuss the current status of integrated education in various conflicted societies—Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Israel, Macedonia, and Northern Ireland. A driving concern for this group was the need to review the different frameworks and approaches in the developing field of integrated education in conflicted societies, where children who are more normally educated apart are deliberately educated together. Indeed, it was that concern, or rather the recognition that integrated education was “happening” in different conflicted societies, that led to the urgent need to learn from each other’s experiences and reconceptualize how integrated education initiatives could be fostered through supportive networks for practice and research. To that end, the academics, practitioners, and nongovernmental organizations from these conflicted societies began a critical dialogue that resulted in what we believe is a valuable effort to sustain an international network of integrated education. For, as has been demonstrated in this book, it is through critical reflection on existing initiatives in different societies that more effective modes of integrated education can be enunciated.