Dr Matthew Milliken

Matthew Milliken grew up in Northern Ireland as the son of a police officer at the height of the Troubles. Whilst still at school he began working with young people in cross-community reconciliation projects in Belfast. Matthew studied for a BA (Hons) in Youth and Community Work in Jordanstown (1981-85) before relocating to Berlin where he worked in a range of social projects and studied at the FHSS to gain German state accreditation as a Sozialpaedagog (Social Educator).

Following the fall of the Berlin wall Matthew returned to Ireland and took up a youth work post. Over subsequent years he delivered community relations projects and training programmes, developed a multi-agency Youth Strategy and managed a string of international exchange programmes in contested and conflict-affected regions. He was instrumental in the drafting and implementation of the Department of Education's Community Relations Equality and Diversity policy. Matthew’s youth work received many awards and was widely profiled in the media and peer reviewed journals. He completed an MSc in 1999 and a PhD in 2018. He is currently employed in the UNESCO Centre at Ulster University. His current research interests lie in the manner in which education policies and sectoral practices serve to maintain the enduring community divide in NI.

Recent Academic Publications:

Milliken, M. (2021) United We Stand? Teaching Unions and the Separation of Teachers in the Divided Education System of Northern Ireland Irish Educational Studies DOI: 10.1080/03323315.2021.1910970

Milliken, M., Bates, J. & Smith, A. (2021) Teaching on the Other Side: how identity affects the capacity for agency of teachers who have crossed the community divide in the Northern Ireland educational system, Oxford Review of Education, DOI: 10.1080/03054985.2020.1867525

Milliken, M., Bates, J. & Smith, A. (2021) Teaching across the divide: perceived barriers to the movement of teachers across the traditional sectors in Northern Ireland, British Journal of Educational Studies, 69:2, 133-154 DOI: 10.1080/00071005.2020.1791796