The rationale for how education operates is often contentious. There are varying views about academic selection, politicians disparage some degrees while lauding others, private schools’ charitable status is disputed … and so on. However, in Northern Ireland (NI), schooling largely replicates profound British/Protestant and Irish/Catholic societal divisions.

Some researchers/teacher educators choose to avoid researching the divisions in the system – it may be considered much safer for career advancement to look at literacy, school retention, academic outcomes, and so on. However, a small team of researchers at Ulster University decided to step outside their comfort zone and write a series of ‘Transforming Education’ papers to stimulate debate on aspects of the NI education context. While using a rigorous academic approach, these briefing papers were designed to be short and accessible. The researchers used them to explore (and expose on social and traditional media platforms) some of the little-understood and frequently overlooked issues that lie at the foundations of a system in need of a fundamental overhaul. The eight blog posts in this special issue are based on these discussion papers.

The focus of this special issue is not to advance any partisan view but to unpack the complexities of NI’s education context in order to promote debate among parents and prospective parents, politicians and decision-makers, among the wider public and within the profession itself.

The contributions explore:

• the rationale for Ulster University’s Transforming Education project and what it set out to do
• the strengths, while also naming the ‘dark’ secrets, of ‘learning apart’ in the NI education landscape
• some of the challenges of duplication within NI’s education system
• the complex role that religion plays in NI’s schooling system
• the impacts of academic selection
• whether Citizenship Education in NI has lived up to its vision
• an opinion piece applauding Integrated schools as a small step along the road to unity
• reimagining an education system in NI; one which reconsiders governance, the role of churches, academic selection and Citizenship Education.