Counter Terrorism Law and Education: Student Teachers’ Induction into UK Prevent Duty Through the Lens of Bauman’s Liquid Modernity

Abstract

This chapter explores the way student teachers understand their professional role in relation to the UK’s counter terrorism legislation as it relates to schools. Data were collected from one hundred and fifty students based on their experiences in schools and analysed using Bauman’s notion of liquid modernity as a theoretical frame. We argue that despite a normative attachment to notions of professional objectivity and political detachment in the classroom, most student teachers interpreted their new duties as legitimate and were uncritical of legislation and policy that expects them to play an overtly political role in schools.