When counter-extremism ‘sticks’: the circulation of the Prevent Duty in the school space

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article contributes to scholarship in Muslim geographies to show how the Prevent Duty is a racializing and securitizing policy, which exists in an already unequal school space. Through the concept of ‘stickiness’, it shows how the Prevent Duty creates associations of violence and extremism with gendered Muslim bodies and considers the spatial politics of Prevent Duty training. By attending to the effective nature of Prevent, this paper considers how these policy documents create negative attachments that shape how Muslim teachers experience the school space, as both the implementers and potential targets of the policy. In-depth interviews with current and former teachers working in London schools were conducted in 2018, with a particular focus on the experiences of Muslim teachers. The results indicate that when the Prevent Duty is in circulation, it creates an atmosphere in which ‘Muslimness’ feels under surveillance, lingering beyond the training space.