Understanding prevention of violent extremism through youth perspectives: Lessons from UNESCO MGIEP project #YouthWagingPeace

• In Event: Educational approaches to preventing violent extremism

Proposal

From Daesh and Boko Haram terrorist activities, the rise of white supremacy ideologies, to civil wars and persecutions of religious and ethnic minorities, violent extremism in one form or another can be found virtually anywhere in the world. Young people of different religions, races, politics, and socio-economic backgrounds have increasingly been targeted to carry out violent extremist acts and spread ideologies and messages of intolerance and hate towards those who are perceived as fundamentally different. Yet, we have a limited understanding of young people’s experiences and needs – especially in education – in the fight against violent extremist ideologies, recruitment, and activities. Collaborative work and discussions between senior policy officers and young people of diverse backgrounds at the first UNESCO International Conference on Prevention of Violent Extremism (PVE) through Education held in 2016 acknowledged this critical gap and made a decision to produce a youth-led research and publication to preventing violent extremism through education and youth engagement. This paper presents the outcome of this work – a framework developed to identify and understand problematic aspects of education that can lead to radicalization of young people and/or their engagement with violent extremism, and approaches to re-orient education to diminish young people’s vulnerabilities to violent extremism and build a culture of peace, justice, and nonviolence.

Throughout 2017 the authors used grounded theory to build the project on the voices and stories of young people affected by violent extremism, engaged with violent extremist groups, or working in conflict and post-conflict areas in various geographical, ethnic, linguistic, and socio-political and economic settings. Over 2000 contributions from youth from over 50 countries were collected and included responses to specific questions in the form of essays, online survey, discussions on UNESCO MGIEP social media websites (including Twitter and Facebook groups), as well as Skype interviews and submission of case studies with successful and less effective practices. The questions and discussions ranged from topics on strategies to preventing and countering violent extremism, (de-)radicalization, bullying, problematic school environment, textbooks, curriculum, and teaching, to media, community-based approaches, and engagement with diverse stakeholders, among others. This range of submissions presented a diversity and multiplicity of voices, experiences, and reflections on successes and failures of the different aspects of young people’s education and societies they live in.

This presentation will discuss these diverse and sometimes contradictory voices of hope and aspirations, despair and dejection, that showcase the complexity of the matter we face. Drawing on them, the author will first present a framework that can help stakeholders identify how different aspects of formal and informal education in their settings can contribute to radicalization of young people to violent extremism. After that, it will be discussed how education in its different manifestations and forms can be used as a positive force for prevention of violent extremism. Finally, as this is considered a work in progress, a discussion will be opened to consider the applicability of the insights and experiences for the different contexts the audience comes from.

Author

• Yulia Nesterova, The University of Hong Kong