The Rise of Violent Extremism: A Global Problem
Over the past two decades, there has been a marked increase of violent extremism across the globe, spanning various political elements that range from radical religious movements to white supremacists. This serious threat not only endangers peoples’ lives, but their dignity, security and safety and also their emotional well-being, as individuals are left with a feeling of overwhelming fear and anxiety of the future or an impending attack. Violent extremism also has disastrous and often irreversible effects on cultural heritage, for example the destruction of the mausoleums in Timbuktu in 2012 or of the Palmyra ruins in 2015-6, but also on the environment, for example the so-called ‘weaponisation’ of water in Iraq and Syria. In the interconnected and interdependent world we live in, violent extremism sees no borders; it is a global, transnational problem that leaves no country immune from its impacts. Germany is no exception to this.
Preventing Violent Extremism through Education (PVE-E)
Education has increasingly received unprecedented attention as an important sphere of preventing violent extremism through its ‘soft power’. So far PVE-E research has mostly revolved around informal education and community-reach programs, but it is important to also focus on the institutionalised school setting, and in particular on textbooks and curricula. Textbooks convey specific values and also mirror the inclusion or exclusion of groups in a society and curricula and textbook analyses can act as a diagnostic tool for problematic practices that are counter-productive and even contribute to violent extremism, but also for identifying good practices that help foster resilience.
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Results
Summary of the Project Findings
The first phase of the project, which was completed in 2018, provided an overview of relevant international discourse and practices in the area of Prevention of Violent Extremism through Education. During this phase researchers also conducted an analysis of history and social studies curricula and textbooks for lower secondary school pupils in the 16 German states. The initial findings were published in the report ‘Preventing Violent Extremism Through Education: International and German Approaches’.
The second phase of the project, which ran from January to August 2019, had two key aims. The first was to analyse current curricula for the 16 German states as well as a representative sample of textbooks for upper secondary level and vocational education. The central objective of the textbook analysis was to establish whether there was evidence that PVE-E discourse had been adopted, and if so, how. As part of this process current debates surrounding PVE-E – both in Germany and internationally – were examined in the context of the textbook analyses. The second aim was to use a digitised textbook sample to develop and test digital humanities tools – in close cooperation with the research library and the DIRI department – and, where possible, to build upon tools from previous projects. The tools for quantitative and qualitative analysis were brought together to form a tool box that can be implemented in future textbook research projects.
Publications
- Christodoulou, Eleni and Simona Szakács. Preventing Violent Extremism Through Education: International and German Approaches, Braunschweig: Georg Eckert Institute, 2018.
- Christodoulou, Eleni and Simona Szakács. Prävention von gewalttätigem Extremismus durch Bildung: Internationale und deutsche Ansätze, Braunschweig: Georg Eckert Institute, 2018.
