Advancing citizenship education for counter-extremism

In 2015, the counter-extremism policy, PREVENT, was enforced to address rising extremism in the UK, where extremism is defined as the “vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values.” Schools and educators are required to fulfil Prevent duty by identifying and reporting students who are vulnerable to radicalization, and by teaching students ‘fundamental British values.’ As a Chinese student in the UK who cares about social justice in education, and as a research intern at Global Citizenship Foundation, I consider the Prevent strategy highly problematic, from its skewed depiction of extremism to its method of approach.

Prevent has been censured since its enforcement. According to a comprehensive assessment of the Prevent strategies, Prevent violates students’ rights in freedom of speech and expression. It creates an atmosphere in which surveillance is everywhere. Among all affected youth, young people from Muslim communities are disproportionately influenced by Prevent due to its focus on extremism particularly related to Islam and Muslims. Muslim communities are stigmatized, with Muslim youth being considered as risks that need to be disciplined and governed. Given the harsh criticisms Prevent has received, citizenship education has been brought to the table as an alternative to address extremism.

As an international student, I did not know about the UK government’s definition of extremism and the Prevent strategy until I took the module “Education, Policy and Social Justice” during my second year at the University. While I agreed with most of the criticisms towards Prevent, during my study of the module, I reserved my opinions on whether citizenship education can be a better way to counter extremism. This is partially because I have not received complete citizenship education in the UK. However, this is also because—based on what I have read and witnessed—citizenship education in the UK shares part of the problematic nature with the Prevent strategy.

Citizenship education develops “knowledge, skills and understanding that pupils need to play a full part in society as active and responsible citizens”. While nothing sounds wrong with this definition, problems arise when it comes to delivering citizenship education. One main problem is the embedded ’Britishness’ in the curriculum. The ’Britishness’ of citizenship education in the UK has been criticized for being solely related to one particular group of citizens – the white, Christian English. Even though the U.K. citizens today have more diverse backgrounds and identities, the equation between Britishness and Englishness, Whiteness and Christianity is hardly challenged. Citizens with other social identities can experience incompatibility between their identities and this Britishness, even though they are British citizens.

For families who have lived in the UK for generations, such incompatibility and the subsequent sense of alienation is common in their day-to-day lives.  “I found it quite offensive that when I was chatting with white people, they often asked me where I come from,” a friend tells me. “I was born here, my mum was born here, my dad was born here… were they asking because of my skin colour?” With an unchallenged concept of Britishness embedded in citizenship education, a sense of ‘others’ is reinforced, even perpetuated, which is continuously dividing people rather than fostering citizens’ sense of belonging to the national community as a whole. Building upon this kind of ’Britishness,’ when students are learning the concept and importance of diversity in the citizenship curriculum, they end up learning the knowledge about “others” from a decided dominant position of one group, a way that cannot break the demonisation, marginalisation, and the loss of voices of certain groups, but on the contrary risk reinforcing them.

I wanted to explore citizenship education in other countries and other innovative ways to counter extremism through education. I had the opportunity to work as a Research Intern at Global Citizenship Foundation throughout this summer. While my work does not merely focus on citizenship education for counter-extremism, my daily observations at work and the conversations I have had with staff and interns from all over the world have inspired me to see the new possibilities of citizenship education.

It is vital for citizenship education to be delivered in a way that students’ agency and narratives are acknowledged and valued. Citizenship education should offer more opportunities for students to engage in critical dialogues with teachers and peers. Instead of being told that certain values need to be appreciated or being given basic facts about some social groups or cultures, students should have more opportunities to raise their own voices on what citizenship means, to interact with their peers through discussion, and to engage in the formation of their own citizenship identities. The Prevent strategy is implemented based on the assumption that some vulnerable students need intervention to be deradicalized in order to stay safe. Students are somehow considered as passive individuals who are so vulnerable to extreme ideas that they need to be 'saved'.

However, instead of pointing directly to students, I think it is more important to offer students opportunities, appropriate platforms, and comfortable spaces to voice their own thoughts, talk about their own experiences, and interact with teachers and their peers through critical dialogues. In this way, students can explore citizenship and the diversity of identities from equal positions. No one is considered to be the 'other' or a member of an at-risk group. For example, though falling into the criticisms for merely focusing on Muslim communities, an interesting approach proposed by the Dialogue Society recognizes the significance of raising Muslims’ voices in the discussions around counter-extremism and social cohesion.

When it comes to citizenship education for young people, the idea of critical dialogues is often taken up as Freirean pedagogy. Paulo Freire’s emphasis on dialogues in education derives from his criticism towards a banking model of teaching, where educators pour knowledge into the empty bottle – students. Freire advocated a form of education where equal dialogues are initiated and valued. Those students who are marginalized and oppressed can raise their own voices, uncover the unequal nature of societies, and gain the power to bring changes. “I have never had citizenship education courses, only a course about human ethics and values, however I’ve been interested in social and political issues since I was young because I grew up watching the news all the time,” one of my colleagues from the Philippines told me. “I want to address the inaccessibility of education for the marginalized in my country because I have this kind of experience.”

“Through Global Citizenship Education, what I want is to bridge our differences in all aspects,” said an Iranian colleague when I asked what Global Citizenship Education means to her. “If we can all be on the same page, we can sit down and discuss about how to address global problems.” As an Iranian who lives in Kenya, her multiple identities (related to her decision to wear hijab and the colour of her skin) sparked her passions for social justice and youth empowerment. Additionally, her views have empowered me with a more open and critical perspective when diving into the discourse of religion and race; dialogue with her enables me to be a more informed and critical citizen. Even though many colleagues I have spoken to were unsure what exactly citizenship education entails, their actions and commitments to different social problems have already made them active and responsible citizens. When we were discussing different social issues or movements, I gradually forgot what I had learned about their national, race and religious identities in the past, and was only interested in their different perspectives and visions. As far as I am concerned, these are the most valuable things we can and should get from citizenship education.

Before I wrote this article, I asked many people what extremism and counter-extremism mean, without giving the definition made by the UK government. The examples they gave me varied from hate crimes against Asians, racism, misogynist extremism, and post-election violence. These are all extant forms of extremism that deserve our attention. Why are these forms of extremism rarely mentioned or addressed in the counter-extremism policy? Instead of targeting a particular group and considering one single form of extremism as the dominant problem, citizenship education has the potential to move beyond the Prevent strategy to do more.  Initiating more critical dialogues could be one step for improving, and the rest of its potentials are waiting to be explored.

Xiaqiuzi Han is a third-year education and sociology student studying at the University of Birmingham. She is passionate about addressing different social inequalities through citizenship education. Her recent research interests are the political empowerment of marginalized youth and counter-extremism. She joined the “Decolonizing the Curriculum” project and the UoB Reverse Mentoring Scheme to promote a more inclusive, diverse and equal study environment at the University.

By actively participating in a wide range of projects and activities focusing on addressing different social problems, Xiaqiuzi seeks to explore the complexity of citizenship and political engagements, not only in the UK and her home country of China, but also in many other countries across the world. She plans to continue studying at university after graduation and pursue her research interests.