Bitesize Research: Extremist Views Amongst School-Age Students

By Jaya Carrier

I hope everyone has had a great week so far. On our T2 INSET day, we’re having an external speaker join us to talk about PREVENT and how it fits within a wider culture of safeguarding. To this end, I was interested to see the reporting on a piece of research done by the UCL Institute of Education to mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11 around the theme of extremism and radicalisation in schools.

Objectives:

To understand the current state of play with respect to extremist views amongst school-age students.

Summary: 

• Extreme views such as racism, misogyny and homophobia are described as being ‘widespread’ and ‘rising’ across the UK
• Teachers are not regularly given time, training or resources to combat these views effectively
• Where anti-extremist work does take place, it is often done performatively rather than meaningfully 
• Teachers can be concerned about ‘getting it wrong', particularly with respect to conversations about race
• Community engagement is very important in order to tackle the rise of extremist views effectively

 

How does this impact me and my practice?:

Some reflection questions arising from this that might be helpful to consider are: 

• What am I hoping to gain from the PREVENT and facilitating conversations with students about race training in INSET T2?
• What do I need in order to support me to tackle extremist views?
• How have I effectively done this before? What does this look like in a classroom or pastoral setting?

 

If you would like to discuss this further with me - please let me know! I’d be delighted to open up these discussions and conversations.

Thanks, Jaya