{"id":414,"date":"2016-01-25T12:42:29","date_gmt":"2016-01-25T12:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/?p=414"},"modified":"2016-01-26T09:30:44","modified_gmt":"2016-01-26T09:30:44","slug":"racism-fundamentalism-and-a-democratic-education-the-challenge-for-us-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/racism-fundamentalism-and-a-democratic-education-the-challenge-for-us-all\/","title":{"rendered":"Racism, Fundamentalism and a Democratic Education: The Challenge for Us All"},"content":{"rendered":"

The recent terror attacks on the streets of Paris, the beaches of Tunisia and other places across the world have dominated the media in recent months, as has news of young people seduced by the idea of Jihad.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Professor Linden West, <\/em><\/strong>Director of the M.Phil and PhD programme in the Faculty of Education at Christ Church, explores racism, fundamentalism and democratic education. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

There was an editorial in last Sunday’s Observer (24.1.16) – Point-scoring no help in tackling radicalisation<\/em>, which I think raises important issues<\/em>.\u00a0<\/em>I\u00a0think, like the editor of the paper, that we need a more nuanced and responsible approach to these difficulties.\u00a0Multi-culturalism’s success depends\u00a0on hard work to build relationships and self-confidence within\u00a0communities. But\u00a0to\u00a0associate\u00a0Muslim women’s lack of English with the problem\u00a0of radicalism might risk, among other factors,\u00a0turning communities inwards.<\/p>\n

Most of us will agree\u00a0that it is time for serious\u00a0thinking and debate. I have spent a number of years\u00a0researching, in-depth and\u00a0using narrative enquiry, particular communities, both white working class and Muslim, to\u00a0illuminate either the allure of racism\u00a0or of Islamism among\u00a0some young people. The stigmatisation of specific communities does\u00a0not help:\u00a0in\u00a0the language of\u00a0moral fecklessness, laziness, benefit cheats\u00a0or Chavishness directed at working class communities, for example. Or in the\u00a0virulence of\u00a0Islamophobia, and accusations of anti-Britishness, misogyny and now\u00a0illiteracy targeted\u00a0at\u00a0Muslims.\u00a0Getting close to actual people reveals the anxieties they face, and why some people in white estates\u00a0are attracted to\u00a0the BNP or EDL; or in Muslim communities,\u00a0to the radicalisers. In the\u00a0post-industrial city, Stoke, where\u00a0I researched, these tendencies are set within a context of\u00a0rapid industrial decline,\u00a0the loss of low skilled jobs, the emptying out of representative democracy,\u00a0the weakening of local government and high levels of mental ill-health.\u00a0The Prevent Strategy in the city has also been under-resourced, with a high turnover of staff.\u00a0Moreover, teachers in schools can feel under-prepared to handle the multi-cultural classroom, their instrumental training\u00a0failing to equip them to handle\u00a0the complexity, while bodies, like the Workers\u2019 Educational Association,\u00a0having\u00a0done sterling work\u00a0to\u00a0bring white working\u00a0class and Muslim\u00a0women together, in\u00a0innovative health programmes, struggle with\u00a0inadequate\u00a0funding and short-termism.<\/p>\n

There are resources of hope in the city, which include\u00a0proud local\u00a0histories of\u00a0Stoke miners and their resistance to\u00a0Nazi barbarism. They expressed\u00a0solidary\u00a0towards their Czech comrades\u00a0in the War and helped\u00a0rebuild the town of\u00a0Lidice afterwards (a mining community obliterated by the Nazis in 1942 in retaliation for the assignation of Reinhard Heydrich). The campaign was labelled Lidice shall live, <\/em>in contradistinction to the Nazi’s Lidice shall die. <\/em>It was\u00a0led by a local GP, himself a refugee from Polish pogroms.\u00a0The\u00a0Lidice shall live <\/em>history\u00a0has been resuscitated in particular schools, as a means to teach about the other, and how\u00a0his or her presence\u00a0should be\u00a0welcomed rather than feared; and of how local people have\u00a0a proud and principled\u00a0history as a basis for\u00a0renewed civic confidence. Moreover, the city\u00a0boasts a strong\u00a0history of workers\u2019 education, which\u00a0once provided local people with the\u00a0confidence and\u00a0knowledge to become active citizens. The\u00a0past can be a resource in thinking about what we might do, responsibly,\u00a0in the\u00a0present.<\/p>\n

Professor Linden West will be giving a public lecture, <\/em><\/strong>Racism, Fundamentalism and a Democratic Education: The Challenge for Us All, on some of these issues on Thursday 11 February at 6pm, in the Old Sessions House on the North Holmes Campus of Canterbury Christ Church University. The lecture is free and open to all. Book a place<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The lecture marks the launch of Professor West\u2019s recently published book: <\/em><\/strong>Distress in the city: racism, fundamentalism and a democratic education<\/em><\/a>, which <\/strong><\/em>provides\u00a0insights and ideas\u00a0to help build\u00a0more\u00a0nuanced\u00a0and responsible approaches to radicalisation.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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