Early years practitioners could play a key role in cementing peace and understanding between communities after many years of conflict in Northern Ireland through a ground-breaking initiative which teaches young children to respect and celebrate differences.
The Media Initiative for Children - a joint effort by the early years organisation NIPPA and a US-based charity, the Peace Initiatives Institute - was developed as a pilot in 2004, and has now been rolled out to 1,000 pre-school children in Northern Ireland.
NIPPA chief executive Siobhan Fitzpatrick says her organisation was prompted to move from being non-sectarian to adopting a pro-active anti-sectarian stance following the publication of research by Paul Connolly, a professor of education at Queen's University in Belfast.
The report, Too young to notice? The cultural and political awareness of three- to six-year-olds in Northern Ireland, said children as young as three could show signs of sectarian prejudice.
Mr Connolly told the international conference 'Diversity and Inclusion in the Early Years', organised by NIPPA in Belfast, 'Many people may find it hard to believe, but the signs of sectarianism, racism and other prejudices can be evident at this very early age.
'Children can show a strong preference for the cultural events and symbols of their own community by the time they are three. When they are six, many are fully aware they belong to one side or another. It is important that at this very young age we give children a more positive, rounded and inclusive view of difference and diversity in all its forms.'
A variety of resources has been used in pre-school settings to convey the message of tolerance and respect for differences, including TV advertisements, photographs, flags, jigsaws and puppets. The jigsaws include depictions of an Orange Order parade, Catholic boys on St Patrick's Day and a Gaelic football match.
Different traditions
Mrs Fitzpatrick says, 'These are activities that in the past have divided our children and communities. Our approach is to support teachers and children to talk about these different traditions. The children involved in the Media Initiative may be young, but we have evidence of them beginning to understand and accept difference.'
The special features of the curriculum are not exclusively concerned with the Catholic-Protestant sectarian divide. The project also aims to tackle bullying arising from disability and racism. An Irish-born child with an Irish accent, but of Nigerian origin, is now being introduced to the campaign in co-operation with the Children's Commissioner for Northern Ireland and the ombudsman for children in the Irish Republic, 'to reflect the changes in the community structure here,' says Mrs Fitzpatrick.
The Media Initiative places a high premium on developing training programmes to help pre-school teachers adapt to the new curriculum. Mrs Fitzpatrick explains, 'The first half of this training involves exploring our own attitudes and values, and unpicking the baggage we, adults who have lived through this conflict, bring with us.'
A grant worth 3.3m has been obtained to explore the attitudes of pre-school teachers and parents who, she says, from 'the staunchest republican and loyalist areas, have embraced the programme'. She adds that parent workshops will also be open to grandparents who often look after children.
Concern over the impact of sectarian politics came to a head five years ago, when pupils attending the Holy Cross Primary School for Girls in Belfast had the daily ordeal of making their way past hostile crowds in a largely Protestant community. Those engaged in the Media Initiative are determined that such events should never happen again.
Enthusiastic parents
Patricia Mills, childcare co-ordinator at the Roden Street community development group in Belfast, which includes a playgroup, creche and after-school club, says parents in the nationalist area have been enthusiastic about the aims of the initiative.
'There is always some apprehension with something like this, but they have encouraged us as much as we have encouraged them,' she adds.
She says that the children respond well to the puppets that are often brought out to resolve disputes, and that the jigsaws help familiarise them with differences.
'We also cut up apples to show children that while they may have different colours on the outside, inside they are the same and should be valued as such,' she adds.
The Roden Street playgroup is already planning to collaborate with the Hobby Horse playgroup, which is situated across the sectarian divide on the Protestant Shankill Road - something that would have been unthinkable a few years ago.
The Media Initiative has also helped integrate a large Filipino community living in the surrounding area, with many nurses working locally at the city's Royal Victoria Hospital.
Kathleen McKee, senior supervisor at the Hobby Horse group, is looking forward to working with the Roden Street playgroup. She predicts lasting benefits for the children and the local community. 'If we can encourage children to do this, hopefully it can rub off on the parents,' she says.
NIPPA has held discussions with the Curriculum Advisory Council to examine the possibility of extending the curriculum into the lower end of primary school. Mrs Fitzpatrick says NIPPA wants the Media Initiative to be 'available to all children on the island of Ireland, whether they are in a home-based or group-based care environment, and whether it is in the statutory or private sector'.
At the Banbridge pre-school, 20 miles south of Belfast, Catholic and Protestant children mix happily. But head Linda McAdam says the programme has been instrumental in 'opening their minds to other cultures'.
The group has dug into its own coffers to buy costumes depicting different countries and has highlighted the flags of different nations - a contrast with the way children have seen flags used in their communities to indicate sectarian allegiance.
There are plans to extend the initiative to under-threes with the jigsaws.
'This is nothing to do with political correctness, it's just opening children's minds to differences. If you show them, the children will respect the differences. They would be scared of what they don't know,'
says Ms McAdam.
Around the world
The Media Initiative for Children is gaining supporters not only in Ireland, but across the globe. Mrs Fitzpatrick recently addressed a conference in Colombia of delegates from countries either in conflict or emerging from conflict, such as Albania, Nepal, Rwanda and South Africa.
A book will be launched in Malaysia next year, with each chapter devoted to strategies the early childhood community is using in a range of countries to support pre-school teachers, children and parents in promoting peace.
Mrs Fitzpatrick says, 'This is particularly pertinent when we see what's happening in the Middle East.'
She also addressed the conference of the National Children's Bureau in Nottingham. Jane Lane, an advocate worker for racial equality in the early years, who was also there, plans to visit Northern Ireland to consider the implications of this initiative for England.
She says there is an urgent need in the rest of the UK to gather evidence that young children may be learning to be racially prejudiced, so practitioners, Government and the media can work together to challenge racism.
Case study
* For Donna Smyth, who runs the Carrowdore pre-school playgroup in a rural primary school, puppets have proved 'an invaluable resource for encouraging thought and discussion about diversity'.
She recalls how one boy, who is black and has a mother and sibling who are white, was laughed at by his closest friend and other children when he came to pre-school wearing braids.
She says, 'The child and his mother were very distressed by this, and naturally his mother's response was to take the child home.'
The pre-school reassured the mother that they would address the problem.
They set about identifying and addressing how all the children involved perceived one another.
Ms Smyth says that when she mentioned to the child that she had a friend with cornbraids, he replied, 'Sure, there's nobody like me.'
'While I had considered how the others had perceived him, I had not taken into consideration how he felt about himself,' she says, adding that the experience was 'a huge learning curve for all involved in the setting'.
Ms Smyth welcomes the Media Initiative resources, which enable settings to implement a curriculum promoting mutual respect 'throughout the school year and not just as a one-off project'.
She insists that simply promoting an ethos of equality is not enough.
Differences should be recognised and respected, with 'an understanding that while we are different, we are all normal, valuable people'.
Further information
* For details of the Media Initiative for Children visit www.mifc-pii.org
