The Case of Securitizing Education: Exploring Educational Efforts to Prevent Radicalization in Norwegian Public Schools

• In Event: Park Central Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: Policing for/Against Peace

Abstract

Preventing individuals from radicalizing appears to have drawn public education into national counterterrorism strategies. This paper explores the narratives of educators in selected Norwegian schools, on questions of how they perceive and prevent issues of radicalization. Informants describe prevention efforts through a combination of safeguarding and monitoring students they perceive to be at risk of radicalizing. Immigrants and Muslim students are by the informants considered particularly susceptible to radicalization. Preventive efforts that profile individuals based on culture or religion may potentially be alienating. Securitizing radicalization in schools thus risks excluding or marginalizing affected students, rather than providing safety and inclusiveness for them. These experiences reveal the current incompleteness of incorporating security strategies into Norwegian secondary education.

Authors

• Martin Meggele Sjøen, University of Stavanger

• Sissel Haugdal Jore, University of Stavanger