Further infoTerrorism isn’t inevitable - schools can do much to prevent extremism by arming young people against radicalisation.
So says education expert Professor Lynn Davies in her urgently needed new book Educating Against Extremism. Few people could attempt such an ambitious book and pull it off so brilliantly.
Extremism, fuelled by its links to terrorism and religious fundamentalism, is a huge concern across the world. It’s easy for people to feel that we can do nothing, and just wait for the next attack that gets past Britain’s security systems and blows people’s lives apart.
But we can do more to prevent terrorism, certainly in the long term. Lynn Davies tackles a seemingly impossible task with academic rigour and a lively accessible writing style, showing how we can challenge our young people and prevent their becoming radicalised. She examines the relationship of extremism to education and constructs a model for schools that could counter the more dangerous forms of extremism.
Formal education does little to prevent people joining extremist groups. Neither does it equip young people to analyse fundamentalism. We have seen attacks by suicide bombers who had their schooling in state systems in England and elsewhere in Europe. Global communications technologies mean that the way young people organise for terrorism lies mostly outside the school but this does not mean that schools are without power. The book proposes an entirely different educational strategy to the conventional tolerant multiculturalism that pertains in the west. The task - a challenging one - is to politicise young people without cementing uncritical acceptance of single truths.
Lynn Davies brings her knowledge of wide ranging research and sophisticated analysis of human behaviour to the discussion of
- the nature of extremism and myth-making
- identity and belonging
- religious belief and faith schools
- justice and revenge
- free speech, humour and satire
- and critical thinking and critical (dis)respect
In proposing an education which allows for alternatives and ambiguity, the book argues for the centrality of political education, media education and active citizenship education, as well as critical and comparative religious education, all firmly based on a universal value position around human rights. A strong civil society is one that is not afraid to critique but which has people with the skills and dispositions to do so without violence. How to foster and support a society of this kind is the thesis of this daring and greatly needed book. The list of contents is below.
Lynn Davies is Professor of International Education at the Centre for International Education and Research, University of Birmingham, and expert on conflict, and author of many books including the prize-winning Education and Conflict: Complexity and Chaos.
She said: ‘Educating against extremism is not about teaching moderation or tolerance. It is about forging critical idealism, imbuing young people in schools with a secular value system of human rights. Educating against extremism requires critical (dis)respect, resistance to single truths and a lightness of touch - even of humour’.
The Author
Professor Lynn Davies has expertise in conflict and education, based on her work in conflict and post-conflict societies across the world. She has wide experience in research, training and writing on democracy and participation in education, citizenship education and student and teacher rights and responsibilities. She built up the Centre for International Education and Research at the School of Education, University of Birmingham, leading a team of people to promote teaching, research and consultancy in international education.
For over 20 years Professor Davies has worked internationally on social and political issues in countries including Angola, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Botswana, Dubai, Egypt, Jordan, Kosovo, Malawi, Pakistan, Palestine, Peru, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Zimbabwe. A recognised authority on conflict and education, she has been a consultant on various aspects of education reform, teacher education, institutional capacity building, gender, and inspection.
Her many publications include
(2007) School Councils: School Improvement. Report of Action Research project, School
Councils UK
(2007) ‘Our Schools, Our Changes, Our Future: Base-line Primary Education Research in
Angola’ Report to CfBT
(2006) (with Williams, C and Yamashita, H), Inspiring Schools: Impact and Outcomes: Taking
Up the Challenge of Pupil Participation Review for Carnegie Young People Initiative
(2005) (with Harber, C and Schweisfurth, M) Democratic Professional Development: a
Guidebook for supervisors and inspectors of education Centre for International Education
and Research, Birmingham
(2004) Global Citizenship: The Needs of Teachers and Learners Report of DFID funded
project
(2004) Conflict and Education: Complexity and Chaos London: RoutledgeFalmer (winner of
Society of Education Studies prize for best book of 2004)
Contents of Education Against Extremism
Chapter 1 The nature of extremism
Chapter 2 Identity and radicalisation
Chapter 3 Segregation, faith schools and the myth of equal value
Chapter 4 Justice, revenge and honour
Chapter 5 Free speech, offence, humour and satire
Chapter 6 Towards critical idealism: the XvX model
The Market
- lecturers and students on courses related to education and conflict, race, social cohesion, religion, citizenship, social policy
- policy makers concerned with education and social cohesion, terrorism, extremism
- courses on human rights and citizenship, religion, ethnicity/race, conflict/peace
- anyone working with young people
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