Threshold of Adversity: Resilience and the Prevention of Extremism Through Education

Abstract

This article introduces the concept of ‘threshold of adversity’ as an, at present, tentative means of understanding the turning points to radicalization and extremism within educational systems. The conceptual frame is, we argue, of pedagogical and policy relevance across and beyond Nordic countries. Across Nordic countries, the main objective for the prevention of radicalization and extremism through education (PVE-E) is to strengthen the students’ resilience against ideological influences. Given the specialist complexities of the interdisciplinary research literature on terrorism, from which much PVE-E derives, for teachers and policy-makers, understanding the theoretical contexts, which underlie such policy innovations and their pedagogical implementation, are, understandably, problematic. To discuss extremism and the possibilities of its prevention especially in the education sector, an understanding of what exactly is being prevented or fought against is needed. Our conceptual ‘threshold of adversity’ model offers at least a starting point for a more practicable pedagogical implementation.

The meanings, risk factors and consequences of religious extremism: The perceptions of Islamic education teachers from Israel

“…Emad, Sawsan, Monder and Yousef added that the government's racist policies against the Arab minority; the police double standards in treating Arab vs. Jewish protestors in the last uprisings in Israeli mixed cities; Israeli oppression of Arab citizens as viewed by students on Instagram, Facebook and Tiktok; racist statements by Israeli Jewish leaders and politicians; Israeli policies against Al‐Aqsa and the Arab residents of East Jerusalem; and the war against Gaza all produced the students' fear of and antagonism towards Israel and its Jewish citizens. According to Benjamin et al (2021), following Cassam (2021): ‘The extremist mindset is built upon the idea that the individual or group is victimized or oppressed by some other group or ideology or more generally by society’ (p. 209). In general, the continuing marginalisation of social/religious groups may intensify the citizens' extremist statements and behaviours (Benavides et al, 2011; Ghosh et al, 2017).…”

“…Davies (2016) finds that young people may join extremist movements because of the ‘substitute family or comradeship they provide’ (Davies, 2016, p. 9). Kruglanski et al (2019) and Benjamin et al (2021) talk about safety, relatedness and a personal sense of significance as needs that should be satisfied in order to prevent feelings of uncertainty, grievance and injustice—fertile affective conditions for radicalisation.…”

“…Amjad adds, 'the communications media may include a lot of distortions, misinformation, lies and slander'. These statements highlight, once again, the significance of critically consuming religious knowledge (Benjamin et al, 2021;Ghosh & Chan, 2018;Halstead, 2014;Saada, 2018;Saada & Magadlah, 2020;Tan, 2008) to protect students from the influence of extremist messages, figures and groups (Sukarieh & Tannock, 2015).…”

The Prevention of Extremism and the Role of Safety: Essay on a Well-Balanced Relationship Between Social Work and Law Enforcement

“…Another term that is often used in relation to extremism prevention is resilience. A distinction is made between the resilience of individuals, including in particular young people (Benjamin et al 2021), and the resilience of communities (Stephens et al 2021). Resilience in the context of extremism prevention represents resilience to ideological capture by extremist groups.…”

PLIVO, pedagogikk og beredskap. En kvalitativ studie på skoleskyting og livstruende vold i skolen i nordisk kontekst

“…Økt bevissthet og fokus blant laerere og andre skoleansatte på ulike faresignaler kan ha en forebyggende effekt. Både med tanke på å motvirke ekstremisme (Benjamin et al, 2021), og at laererne og elevene vil bli oppmerksom på hvordan det skal varsles hvis det oppdages red flags, noe som igjen muliggjør å sette inn tidlige tiltak (Kruke et al, 2005;Wildavsky, 1991) Medvirkning i beredskapsarbeidet påvirker alle tre parameterne i positiv retning og sammen fungerer det dermed som en feedbackmodell.…”