Countering far-right threat through Britishness: the Prevent duty in further education

Abstract

ABSTRACT The 2015 Prevent Duty requires public sector workers, by law, to show “due regard” in the need to prevent vulnerable individuals from becoming engaged in terrorism and extremism through safeguarding mechanisms. For the education sector, this also mandated the promotion of Fundamental British Values. With an increasing rise in concerns over the Far-Right, the Prevent duty has come under increasing scrutiny as to its appropriateness and applicability to prevent “all forms” of extremism and terrorism, beyond those which have long been the focus of the UK government – Islamist-inspired threats. Yet, the role of British Values in this puzzle has yet to be addressed. This research reveals how British Values are positioned within the education system as the antithesis to all forms of extremism and terrorism and embedded within classroom pedagogy. It finds that there are questions over the promotion of an agenda which echoes in-group/out-group constructions of (ethno-nationalist) acceptability found within Far-Right ideologies, through notions of Britishness. Further, it examines the ecological agency of educationalists in responding to such concerns through the enactment of policy to “re-package” the agenda whilst simultaneously revealing the limitations placed on such actions by governance processes, curriculum limitations and wider discourses of exclusionary politics.