Skip to main content
Rebecca Loader

Rebecca Loader

Assistant Research Professor

Qualifications

  • PhD Education, Queen’s University Belfast
  • MSc Social Research Methods, Ulster University
  • BA Religious Studies and Education Studies, University of Cambridge

Memberships/Professional Bodies

  • Member of the Comparative and International Education Society
  • Member of the British Educational Research Association

Personal profile

Rebecca is an Assistant Research Professor with the Cambridge Positive Peace Education Hub, led by Professor Hilary Cremin. Her research interests are in education, peace and conflict; education and migration; and social justice education. 

Prior to taking up her post at Cambridge in October 2025, Rebecca was a Senior Research Fellow at Queen’s University Belfast, where her research focused on education in societies that have experienced ethnic/ethno-national conflict. She has led (as Principal or Co-investigator) research on models of integrated and shared education in divided contexts including Northern Ireland, North Macedonia and Cyprus; education among minoritised and migrant groups in Northern Ireland; religious education; and educational inequality. Rebecca’s research has been funded by the Nuffield Foundation, Culham St Gabriel’s Trust, the Social Change Initiative/Atlantic Philanthropies, the Integrated Education Fund and Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education, and the NI Education Authority. She has extensive experience of engaging with policymakers, community organisations and schools in designing, conducting and disseminating research. Rebecca was part of the team at that won the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Shared Education in 2020. 

 

Academic Groups/Areas/Links

THRiVE research group

  • Education
  • Peace and conflict
  • Migration and education
  • Educational inequalities

Current Research Project(s)

  • Cambridge Positive Peace Education Hub (2025–2028)
  • Developing and implementing a context-adaptable positive peace education framework, curriculum and resources, to be shared through an interactive digital hub and networks of peace educators, researchers, policymakers and young people. 

Loader, R. and Hughes, J. (In press). Teaching controversial and sensitive issues: Evaluating a school-youth work partnership approach. Accepted for publication in M. Bartulovic and L. Bash (eds) Children as peacemakers in divided societies. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars.

Nelson, J. and Loader, R. (2025). Religion and Worldviews Education for All: Possibilities for change to Religious Education in Northern Ireland. Belfast: Queen’s University. https://www.qub.ac.uk/home/Filestore/rwe-report-december-2025.pdf

Loader, R. (2025). Anti-racist education in Northern Ireland: Urgency and opportunity. BERA Position paper. https://www.bera.ac.uk/presidential-seminar-series-anti-racist-education-in-northern-ireland-progress-problems-and-prospects-virtual-event

Loader, R., Jiménez, E., Hughes, J. and O’Boyle, A. (2025). The educational response to ethnic and cultural diversity in transitional Northern Ireland: A critical review of policy and research. Irish Educational Studies. Advance online publication.

https://doi.org/10.1080/03323315.2025.2492120 

Cantley, I., Loader, R. and Hughes, J. (2025). Consequences of academic selection for post-primary education in the United Kingdom: A systematic literature review. Review of Education, 13 (2): e70075. https://doi.org/10.1002/rev3.70075

Hughes, J., Loader, R., Jiménez, J. and O’Boyle, A. (2025). Equality of Condition? Exploring Minority Ethnic Group Experiences of Education in Northern Ireland. British Journal of Educational Studies, 73 (6), 695-713. https://doi.org/10.1080/00071005.2025.2537929

Loader, R. and Hughes, J. (2025) Strengths and weaknesses of the Integrated Educated Transformation process. Belfast: Integrated Education Fund. 

Loader, R. and Hughes, J. (2025) Transformation to Integrated status: Principals’ lived experiences of barriers to Transformation. NI Council for Integrated Education.  

Loader, R., Jiménez, E., Hughes, J. and O’Boyle, A. (2024) The primary curriculum for Religious Education in Northern Ireland: Making a case for epistemic justice. In M.L. Moncrieffe, O. Fakunle, M. Kustatscher and A. Olsson Rost (eds) The BERA guide to decolonising the curriculum: Equity and inclusion in educational research and practice. Leeds: Emerald Publishing, 31-39.

Donnelly, C., Loader, R., McLaughlin, A. and Emerson, L. (2024). Adolescents’ and teachers’ experience of shared education: A small-scale qualitative study in Northern Ireland. Cambridge Journal of Education, 54 (3), 275-293. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2024.2343692

Hughes, J. and Loader, R. (2024) Is academic selection in Northern Ireland a barrier to social cohesion? Research Papers in Education, 39 (3), 420-438. https://doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2022.2135016

Hughes, J. and Loader, R. (2023). Shared education: A case study in social cohesion. Research Papers in Education, 38 (3), 305–327. https://doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2021.1961303.

Loader, R., Hughes, J., Jiménez, E. and O’Boyle, A. (2023). Who knows? (De)Valuing migrant parents’ knowledge in Northern Ireland’s schools. Research Intelligence, 157, 13. 

Hanna, H. and Loader, R. (2023). Editorial: Research and practice on migration and education across the four nations of the UK. Research Intelligence, 157, 12. 

Loader, R., Jiménez, E., O’Boyle, A. and Hughes, J. (2023) Experiences of education among minority ethnic groups in Northern Ireland. Belfast: Queen’s University. https://www.qub.ac.uk/public-engagement/Filestore/PubAffFiles/Filetoupload,1862560,en.pdf

Loader, R. (2022). Shared spaces, separate places: Desegregation and boundary change in Northern Ireland’s schools. Research Papers in Education, 37 (6), 1097-1118. https://doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2021.1931947

Tomovska-Misoska, A. and Loader, R. (2021). The role of school-based contact in reducing social distance: Qualitative insights from Northern Ireland and the Republic of North Macedonia. Journal of Peace Education, 18 (2), 182-208. https://doi.org/10.1080/17400201.2021.1927685. 

Hughes, J. and Loader, R. (2021). Building bridges: Dialogue and interaction between teachers from divided communities involved in a shared education project. In L. Caronia and R. Pugliese (eds) Cultures in dialogue: Learning through interaction at home and at school. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 295-315.

Loader, R., Hughes, J. and Furey, A. (2020). ‘By law, custom or local atmosphere’: Exploring institutional support in school-based contact programmes. British Educational Research Journal, 46 (5), 1044-1063. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3612.