The Prevent Duty In Education

This open access book explores the enactment, impact and implications of the Prevent Duty across a range of educational contexts. In July 2015 the UK became the first country to place a specific legal requirement on those working in education to contribute to efforts to ‘prevent people from being drawn into terrorism’. Drawing on extensive research with staff, children and young people, the editors and contributors provide new insight into how this high-profile – and highly contentious – policy has shaped educational practice in Britain today. It will be a valuable resource for researchers, policymakers and others interested in the design, implementation and on-the-ground effects of Prevent or similar programmes internationally that place education at the heart of efforts to prevent or counter violent extremism.

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 open access book explores the enactment, impact and implications of the Prevent Duty across a range of educational contexts. In July 2015 the UK became the first country to place a specific legal requirement on those working in education to contribute to efforts to ‘prevent people from being drawn into terrorism’. Drawing on extensive research with staff, children and young people, the editors and contributors provide new insight into how this high-profile – and highly contentious – policy has shaped educational practice in Britain today. It will be a valuable resource for researchers, policymakers and others interested in the design, implementation and on-the-ground effects of Prevent or similar programmes internationally that place education at the heart of efforts to prevent or counter violent extremism.

This book draws on primary research to present a critical overview of debates about UK university campuses as a location for radicalisation and the impact of counter-radicalisation policies. It provides a historical overview and a contemporary assessment of radicalisation in Universities and covers teaching, student and governance aspects of HE.

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.

This book charts contemporary developments in counter-extremism within the UK education sector. Set against the background of the controversial Prevent strategy the book focuses on the expansion of counter‐extremism into education and draws on key legislation such as the Counter Terrorism and Security Act (2015) that imposed a statutory counter-extremism duty on public sector workers in the UK. The authors provide a wide-ranging critique that draws on theories of surveillance and power, an international review of counter‐extremism educational initiatives and a series of interviews with UK lecturers. Terrorism in the Classroom highlights the problems that occur when counter-extremism becomes an objective of education and a part of the curriculum, as well as the anxiety that is felt by educators who have been deputised into the role of counter-extremism practitioners. It will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines, including Criminology, International Relations, Politics and Education.

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.