Promoting Fundamental British Values

This timely book provides a critical analysis of the statutory requirements to promote Fundamental British Values in educational settings in the UK. It explores British values as they appear in contemporary policy and legislation as well as how Britishness as a concept has evolved in relation to education in the post-war period.

Promoting Fundamental British Values in the Early Years is designed to help early years professionals, leaders and managers understand their responsibilities in relation to fulfilling the Prevent duty and promoting fundamental British values in foundation stage settings. The book: - Provides a brief explanation of the Prevent aspect of the Government's counterterrorism strategy and the implications that this has for safeguarding, child protection and curriculum delivery in the early years - Takes an in-depth look at what the Government means by 'fundamental British values', explaining how these are already implicitly embedded within the EYFS - Offers activity ideas and case studies that exemplify how to promote democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance for those with different faiths and beliefs in the early years setting.

Promoting Fundamental British Values in the Early Years is designed to help early years professionals, leaders and managers understand their responsibilities in relation to fulfilling the Prevent duty and promoting fundamental British values in foundation stage settings. The book: - Provides a brief explanation of the Prevent aspect of the Government's counterterrorism strategy and the implications that this has for safeguarding, child protection and curriculum delivery in the early years - Takes an in-depth look at what the Government means by 'fundamental British values', explaining how these are already implicitly embedded within the EYFS - Offers activity ideas and case studies that exemplify how to promote democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance for those with different faiths and beliefs in the early years setting.

The government has decided that ‘British values’ are democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths. Since 2014, teachers have been required to promote them in schools to all pupils. What are the implications of this for teachers, pupils, and the rest of us? Discussing a broad mix of issues – citizenship, diversity, social class, ethnicity, religion, counter-extremism, affect, and community cohesion – this book discusses the political, social and cultural contexts. Drawing on observations of teaching, as well as teachers’ views, it analyses how teachers make sense of their mandatory promotion, and what ideas of citizenship and identity they offer to their pupils.

This book seeks to investigate how the pedagogic space of schools and classrooms has been defined by the UK government’s counter-terrorism ‘Prevent’ strategy, most notably through the requirement on teachers not to undermine ‘fundamental British values’ as part of the Teachers Professional Standards. The term ‘fundamental British values’ migrated from Prevent to the statutory framework that regulates teacher professionalism and has effectively securitized education practice. The Prevent strategy was conceived in response to the 7/7 bombings in London by so-called ‘home-grown’ Muslim terrorists. The need for teachers to promote British values is an attempt to forge a cohesive British identity among young citizens within a multiracial, multicultural and multilingual society. However, as the chapters in this book illustrate, the state project to harness education to engender belonging – or as some would argue, civic nationalism – whilst simultaneously undertaking surveillance of children and young people from the Muslim community for signs of radicalization, has led to the perception of a hierarchy of citizens or, conversely, ‘insider-outsider’ citizens. The imperative to promote, and not undermine, fundamental British values has, in some instances, transformed the safe space of the classroom where children and young people’s right to explore their perceptions of current affairs, citizenship and belonging has been curtailed for fear of surveillance by teachers who may interpret their utterances as either undermining British values or to be signs of radicalization. This book explores these dilemmas for teachers and the implications for their professionalism, and examines how racist nativism has pervaded society, educational policy and practice through the promotion of a Britishness perceived by many as a raced, classed and exclusionary discourse. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Education for Teaching.

The Prevent strategy, launched in 2007 seeks to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism both in the UK and overseas. It is the preventative strand of the government's counter-terrorism strategy, CONTEST. Over the past few years Prevent has not been fully effective and it needs to change. This review evaluates work to date and sets out how Prevent will be implemented in the future. Specifically Prevent will aim to: respond to the ideological challenge of terrorism and the threat we face from those who promote it; prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and ensure that they are given appropriate advice and support; and work with sectors and institutions where there are risks of radicalization which need to be addressed

This text provides trainees, teachers and schools with practice-based advice, informed by current practitioners, relating to the delivery of British Values. It covers many topical themes and supports educational professionals to understand their duties around the PREVENT agenda and goes further to explore why this is important.

This book contributes to the small but growing critical literature on fundamental British values and the Prevent strategy in the British education system. Focusing specifically on RE, a subject concerned with multiculturalism, difference and pluralism, the book will argue that there is a tension between the aims of RE and the agenda of fundamental British values. The author argues that fundamental British values and the requirements of the Prevent duty (2015) amount to a securitization of education which fundamentally alters the relationship between teachers and learners. The book presents these developments in education policy as a radical discursive shift: drawing from in depth individual and group interviews with 52 secondary teachers of religious education, the book foregrounds the views of BAME teachers and argues for a nuanced and inclusive approach to civic and values education.