Publication

A Practitioner’s Guide on Preventing Radicalisation in Schools

04 April 2017

In many EU member states, teachers are increasingly facing challenges of integrating students from different cultural backgrounds. Discussions on issues such as patriarchal structures and traditions, orthodox Islam, Islamism and Salafism are often emotionally charged and can easily overwhelm educators.

Teachers wonder: How can I engage my students in a discussion about sensitive topics they care about, such as the war in Syria or the conflict between Israel and Palestine, without it escalating? How do I talk to a student who says they are not European or Belgian or German but Muslim only? How can I differentiate between a student simply challenging authority and someone flirting or even engaging with an extremist ideology?

In order to help teachers find answers to these questions, the European Foundation for Democracy and the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) have developed a Practitioner’s Guide on Preventing Radicalisation in Schools for use in Germany. It tackles key challenges educators face daily in German school life and was created via a methodological bottom-up approach by teachers for teachers.

The handbook is designed as a “work in progress”, feedback from practitioners will be collected on an ongoing basis and will be included in future versions.

Since national specificities are very important, the guide cannot be simply translated but would need to be developed in each member state.

A similar guide with a focus on far-right ideologies and extremism is in the planning stages.

The handbook is in German and can be downloaded here.

For an English language translation of the table of contents, summary and introduction please click here.