Countering violent extremism in education: a human rights analysis

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7577/hrer.3980

Abstract

Governments around the world have developed a range of policy approaches for countering violent extremism (CVE) in education. In this article we review a United Kingdom (UK) government website offering a library of resources (Educate Against Hate), evaluating the extent to which it is consistent with human rights principles. Whilst the advice, guidance and resources are varied and inconsistent, our analysis shows that children are frequently perceived as potential victims in need of protection, rather than individuals with agency, and they are rarely considered explicitly as rights holders. Whilst an equalities framework is used throughout the website, this is rarely linked to human rights, and does not prevent some stereotypical views of religious minorities being promoted. The article ends with an outline of how a more explicit engagement with children’s rights might help teachers to better align CVE policy with human rights education (HRE) principles.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

Author Biographies

Hans Svennevig, UCL Institute of Education, UK.

Hans Svennevig is Senior Teaching Fellow Citizenship Education and Subject Leader Citizenship PGCE at UCL Institute of Education. Hans has been involved in Citizenship education since 2003 working in schools, colleges and the charity sector. Hans volunteers with the Association for Citizenship Teaching including co-editing Teaching Citizenship. His research interests are in Citizenship education and disaster preparedness education.

Lee Jerome, Middlesex University, UK

Lee Jerome is Associate Professor of Education at Middlesex University. He has worked in citizenship and human rights education for over 20 years and is a founder member of the Association for Citizenship Teaching.

Alex Elwick, UCL Institute of Education, UK.

Alex Elwick is a Lecturer at UCL Institute of Education and Middlesex University. Previously he was the Research Officer at Education Development Trust. He has an AHRC-funded doctorate exploring learning in art galleries and has been a British Research Council Fellow at the Kluge Center, Library of Congress, Washington, DC. His research focuses on the Prevent Duty and approaches towards radicalisation, extremism and terrorism in schools.

References

An, S. & Suh, Y. (2013). Simple yet complicated: U.S. history in South Korean history textbooks. The Social Studies Journal, 104(2), 57-66. https://doi.org/10.1080/00377996.2012.687410 https://doi.org/10.1080/00377996.2012.687410

Bajaj, M. (2012). Schooling for social change: The rise and impact of human rights education in India. London: Continuum. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350091221

Ball, S. J., Maguire, M., & Braun, A. (2013). How schools do policy. Abingdon: Routledge.

Brown, E., Szczepek Reed, B., Ross, A., Davies, I. & Bengsch, G. (2019). Constructing Europe and the European Union through education: Contrasts and congruence within and between Germany and England. Educational Media, Memory and Society, 11(2), 1-29. https://doi.org/10.3167/jemms.2019.110201 https://doi.org/10.3167/jemms.2019.110201

Busher, J. & Jerome, L. (Eds.) (2020). The Prevent duty in education: Impact, enactment and implications. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45559-0

Carney, S. (2009). Negotiating policy in an age of globalization: Exploring educational ‘policyscapes’ in Denmark, Nepal, and China. Comparative Education Review, 53(1), 63-88.

https://doi.org/10.1086/593152 https://doi.org/10.1086/593152

Council of Europe. (2005). Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism. Strasbourg: Council of Europe.

Davies, L. (2018). Review of educational initiatives in counter-extremism internationally. What works? (Report 5). University of Gothenburg: The Segerstedt Institute.

Department for Education. (2014). Promoting fundamental British values as part of SMSC in schools. London: Department for Education.

Department for Education. (2016). New drive to protect children from 'spell of twisted ideologies’. Retrieved from

www.gov.uk/government/news/new-drive-to-protect-children-from-spell- of-twisted-ideologies

Educate Against Hate (2020). https://educateagainsthate.com/

Elwick, A., Jerome, L. & Svennevig, H. (2020). Student perspectives on teaching and the Prevent policy. In J. Busher & L. Jerome (Eds.), The Prevent duty in education: Impact, enactment and implications (pp. 55-75). Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45559-0_4

Fairclough, N. (2001). Critical discourse analysis as a method in social scientific research. In Wodak, R., Meyer, M. (Eds.), Methods of critical discourse analysis (pp. 122-136). London: Sage.

Ford, K. (2019). This violence good, that violence bad: Normative and state-centric discourses in British school textbooks. Critical Studies on Terrorism, 12(4), 693-714.

https://doi.org/10.1080/17539153.2019.1618643 https://doi.org/10.1080/17539153.2019.1618643

Hart, C. S., Biggeri, M. & Babic, B. (Eds.) (2014). Agency and participation in childhood and youth: International applications of the capability approach in schools and beyond. London: Bloomsbury.

Her Majesty’s Government. (1989). Children Act 1989. London: The Stationery Office.

Her Majesty’s Government. (2010). Equality Act 2010. London: The Stationery Office.

Her Majesty’s Government. (2015). Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015. London: The Stationery Office.

Her Majesty’s Government. (2018). CONTEST: The United Kingdom’s strategy for countering terrorism. London: The Stationery Office.

Jerome, L., Elwick, A. & Kazim, R. (2019). The impact of the Prevent Duty on schools: A review of the evidence. British Educational Research Journal, 45(4), 821- 837.

https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3527 https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3527

Kundnani, A. & Hayes, B. (2018). The globalisation of countering violent extremism policies: Undermining human rights, instrumentalising civil society. Amsterdam: Transnational Institute.

Levin, B. (1998). An epidemic of education policy: (What) can we learn from each other? Comparative Education, 34(2), 131-141.

https://doi.org/10.1080/03050069828234 https://doi.org/10.1080/03050069828234

Livingstone, S. (2017). Children’s rights in the digital age. In H. Tumber & S. Waisbord (Eds.), The Routledge companion to media and human rights (pp. 104-113). Abingdon: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315619835-10

Lundie, D. (2017). Security, safeguarding and the curriculum: Recommendations for effective multi-agency Prevent work in schools. Retrieved from http://cepa.hope.ac.uk/safetysecuritycurriculum/

Lundy, L., & Martinez Sainz, G. (2018). The role of law and legal knowledge for a transformative human rights education: Addressing violations of children’s rights in formal education. Human Rights Education Review, 1(2), 4-24. https://doi.org/10.7577/hrer.2560 https://doi.org/10.7577/hrer.2560

Mattsson, C., Hammarén, N. & Odenbring, Y. (2016). Youth ‘at risk’: A critical discourse analysis of the European Commission’s Radicalisation Awareness Network collection of approaches and practices used in education. Power and Education, 8(3), 251-265. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1757743816677133 https://doi.org/10.1177/1757743816677133

McCowan, T. (2008). Curricular transposition in citizenship education. Theory and Research in Education, 6(2), 153-172. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1477878508091109 https://doi.org/10.1177/1477878508091109

Nolan, E. (2016). Teaching CVE: A review of the preventing violent extremism and radicalisation in Australia handbook, and challenges across policy and practice. Working Paper 16-06. The Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security and Society.

Panjwani, F. (2016). Towards an overlapping consensus: Muslim teachers’ views on fundamental British values. Journal of Education for Teaching, 42(3), 329- 340.

https://doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2016.1184463 https://doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2016.1184463

Ragazzi, F. (2017). Students as suspects? The challenge of counter-radicalisation policies in education in the Council of Europe member states. Strasbourg: Council of Europe.

Ragazzi, F. & Walmsley, J. (forthcoming). Counter-radicalisation in the classroom: Insights from eight grassroots projects in the Council of Europe member states. Strasbourg: Council of Europe.

Thomas, P. (2020). Britain’s Prevent strategy: Always changing, always the same? In Busher, J. & Jerome, L. (Eds.), The Prevent duty in education: Impact, enactment and implications (pp. 11-32). Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45559-0_2

Tomaševski, K. (2006). Human rights obligations in education: The 4A scheme. Nijmegen: Woolf Legal Publishers.

United Nations. (2006). The United Nations global counter-terrorism strategy. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 8 September 2006 (A/RES/60/288). New York: United Nations General Assembly.

United Nations. (2011). United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training (A/RES/66/137). New York: United Nations General Assembly.

United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism. (2019). Impact of measures to address terrorism and violent extremism on civic space and the rights of civil society actors and human rights defenders (A/HRC/40/52). New York: United Nations General Assembly.

United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism. (2020). Human rights impact of policies and practices aimed at preventing and countering violent extremism (A/HRC/43/46). New York: United Nations General Assembly.

Vincent, C. (2019). Tea and the queen: Fundamental British values, schools and citizenship. Bristol: Policy Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvkwnpmg

Downloads

Published

2021-03-11

How to Cite

Svennevig, H., Jerome, L., & Elwick, A. (2021). Countering violent extremism in education: a human rights analysis. Human Rights Education Review, 4(1), 91–110. https://doi.org/10.7577/hrer.3980

Cited by