Secondary school teachers’ and prevent practitioners’ conceptualisations of radicalisation in England and the impact of the prevent duty

ABSTRACT

In 2015, the UK government placed teachers in England and Wales at the forefront of efforts to prevent radicalisation in young people. Radicalisation as a concept is complex and confusing, and addressing it in schools may be perceived as controversial. This article investigates how secondary school teachers and Prevent practitioners across England understand the concept of radicalisation in education and the impact of the Prevent Duty on teachers’ professional role. Both groups are public service officials who work with or within secondary schools under different capacities. Thirteen teachers and fourteen Prevent practitioners were interviewed using semi-structured interviews, allowing for in-depth discussions. A thematic analysis approach was used to analyse and organise the data. The findings highlight discrepancies between teachers’ and Prevent practitioners’ understanding of radicalisation, due to different levels of knowledge, job expertise, personal interest, media exposure and training. This inquiry sheds light on how teachers’ and Prevent practitioners’ conceptualisation of radicalisation impacts the way they understand and comply with state policy – in this case, the Prevent Duty, within education.

KEYWORDS:

• Cognitive radicalisation
• behavioural radicalisation
• preventing violent extremism
• pedagogy
• education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Daniela Scerri

Dr. Daniela Scerri is an Independent Researcher. Her main research interests are the radicalisation into violent extremism of young people in secondary and tertiary education, policy development in the area of prevention of radicalisation online and offline and the reintegration of children of foreign terrorist fighters back into education. She is also an official at the European Commission and a visiting lecturer at the Institute for Education in Malta.