“Honestly, I think it’s a horrendous knee-jerk reaction”: politeness, superiority, assimilation and criticality: student teachers’ views on fundamental British values

Lander, Vini, Elton-Chalcraft, Sally ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3064-7249 and Revell, Lynn (2017) “Honestly, I think it’s a horrendous knee-jerk reaction”: politeness, superiority, assimilation and criticality: student teachers’ views on fundamental British values. The BERA Blog: Research Matters . (Unpublished)

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Abstract

In the wake of terror attacks in London and Manchester in 2017, concerns have been raised about the extent to which governmental strategies to combat terrorism are successful in preventing extremism. The requirement “not to undermine fundamental British values” (FBV) has become part of the Teachers’ Standards (DfE 2012) slipping silently, seamlessly and seemingly unchallenged from the government’s counter terrorism strategy Prevent (2011). FBV are denoted as: Democracy, The rule of law, Individual liberty, Mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. Our research arose from a BERA Symposium in October 2012 organised by the BERA Race, Ethnicity and Education Special Interest Group (SIG) and the Religious Education and Moral Education SIG. Guidance on Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural (SMSC) education to “actively promote fundamental British values” (DfE 2014) as well as the need to monitor children and young people at risk of radicalisation, places teachers in a precarious position having to negotiate their role as teacher and agent of surveillance within their classroom. Thus requiring them to place certain pupils who have been racialized and labelled through media and political discourse as ‘suspect’, namely Muslim children and young people (Lander 2016). Yet the role of the teacher should allow children and young people in our care the time and space to explore, articulate and share their developing ideas with respect to a range of social, cultural and moral issues (Revell and Elton-Chalcraft 2016). But the imperative to police any opposition to FBV has ironically served to silence the voices of Muslim children and young people curtailing their right to free speech and thereby infringing their liberty within the now securitised space of the classroom which at one time they may considered safe.

Item Type:	Article
Journal / Publication Title:	The BERA Blog: Research Matters
Publisher:	British Educational Research Association (BERA)
Departments:	Academic Departments > Institute of Education (IOE)
Depositing User:	Anna Lupton
Date Deposited:	11 Jul 2018 15:24
Last Modified:	12 Jan 2024 17:45
URI:	https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/3986

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