Dear Readers:
This issue kicks off a series of invited essays and responses involving the politics of “extremism” and schooling. Under the curatorship of Roozbeh Shirazi, an editor with the journal, the series aims to address the growing relationship between discourses of security, extremism, and Islamophobia as enacted within the theatre of schooling. The series hopes to promote engagement from the field with such questions as who defines what counts as “extremism”, what it means to teach about/against extremism, relations between the discourse of “youth radicalization” and the surveillance of brown and black youth bodies, and the conceptual and material reach of extant approaches to citizenship and citizenship education with respect to achieving social justice for youth from marginalized communities.
Shirazi takes the lead in providing a very provoking if not provocative essay with his opening editorial, “When Schooling Becomes a Tactic of Security: Educating to Counter ‘Extremism’”. Here Shirazi probes the intersections between education reform and larger security imperatives to counter Islamist extremisms as well as to promote “moderation” in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region. Shirazi examines in particular how schooling has come to be seen as linked to the realization of security and racialized biopolitical objectives, and compares such working of education between domestic efforts within the United States, and international development efforts abroad. His essay provides a timely backdrop for our lead essay in the series, “Creating ‘Invited’ Spaces for Counter-Radicalization and Counter-Extremism Education,” by Adeela Arshad-Ayaz and M. Ayaz Naseem, which presents an articulation of how ‘invited spaces’ can foster inclusive and authentic participation and public discourse on issues related to extremism and radicalization. We hope that you might follow this series over the next three issues as we provide space for a critical and much needed examination.