'Citizenship and Identity: socio-economic inequality, political identity and participation'
Belfast, Northern Ireland, 2014

Educators from the five nations gathered in Belfast on 28-29 November 2014 for the 15th annual conference. This year, the conference was themed around the topic of 'Citizenship and identity: socio-economic inequality, political identity and participation' and was the second of three conferences focusing on the theme of 'Identity and Citizenship'. Click here to download the programme

The aims of the conference were to...

• Explore, discuss and debate the relationship between socio-economic inequality, political identity and political participation
• Encourage new thinking and learning about citizenship and identities and promote dialogue across country partnerships
• Explore the use of different pedagogies, including digital technologies, as effective tools for teaching citizenship and identities.

We heard from two guest speakers from Queen’s University Belfast. On Friday, Professor Pete Shirlow, an expert academic who has written and spoken extensively on equality, social class and civic participation, provided the opening keynote. Professor Tony Gallagher, Pro-Vice Chancellor at the University and a leading educationalist with expertise in equality and inclusion and an enthusiastic advocate for citizenship education, provided the second keynote. Keynote speaker films

A series of seminars and workshops explored different aspects of socio-economic inequality, political identity and participation. The Northern Ireland Assembly co-hosted part of the conference and provided further seminars. Seminar resources

I took a whole new perspective on the travelling community. This has heightened my awareness and am now keen to get involved. 
James Lennon, PGCE Student, Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland

Session leaders also suggested pre-seminar readings and programmes. Recommended readings

Throughout the conference, participants used Twitter.  By using the hashtag #5NN, a collaborative running commentary on events emerged, allowing conference attendees to share their thoughts and discuss the topics of the moment with others. We were pleased to see discussions extending beyond those at the conference, with past attendees and others interacting online @FiveNationsNet 

Participants from each nation have also written about their experiences and thoughts in a series of Five Nations Network blogs and elsewhere.

As usual, the shared coffees, lunches and dinners were the cement of the whole weekend, allowing socialising, mingling and networking of mutual benefit. The conversations on these occasions epitomise for me the value of the whole Five Nations’ raison d’etre.
Stephen Jenkins, Head of Politics and Citizenship, Dominican College, Northern Ireland