LEADERSHIP BY EXAMPLE
DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
Why school leaders must do more to combat divisive and radical language ALISON KRIEL, experienced headteacher and CEO, on why schools need to take a more proactive, rather than a reactive, approach to tackle hateful language
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ast year racist hate crimes reached over 100,000 for the first time. Social platforms, such as Twitter, have become breeding grounds for radicalised thoughts, and stories such as the backlash faced by Nicola Sturgeon on a visit to a diverse Scottish school show how quickly - and openly - racist sentiment can be shared. Radicalisation online, whilst often fuelled by the echo chambers of social media, is something that schools are certainly not immune to. We all know how children are quick to pick up things from others, and when language such as ‘invasions’ or ‘illegals’ become normalised, this quickly filters through to the school playground. But for those children who may be refugees, or new arrivals to the country - or even children whose families have been in the UK for much longer - hearing these words, and the wider sentiment around them, is hugely damaging, and that hurt never goes away. From personal experience, I know how much it can make you feel like an outsider. The way in which migrants are discussed, even by those who are compassionate to the cause, is so negative and perfunctory that we can often feel uncomfortable and unseen, even when we have been here for a long time. It’s also harmful for the children in the class who are not from a migrant background and staff too; exposure to these kinds of attitudes, and this kind of
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February 2023
language, can feed directly into the perpetuation of prejudice, as well as risking opening the door to deeper radicalisation. There’s not only the fear that pupils will move into deeper and more active radicalisation, but that these pervasive attitudes will continue to warp the perception of migrants in ways which contribute to further division and day-to-day prejudice. WHAT MORE CAN BE DONE? A report from UCL’s Centre for Teachers and Teaching Research, Addressing Extremism Through the Classroom, found that increasing exposure to radical material online has made the issue worse, whilst lockdown made it much harder to have face-to-face conversations or create safe spaces for discussion – this is why schools must act to both recognise this radicalisation when it happens, and work hard to make sure all children feel welcomed and valued. School leaders need to think about what more they can be doing to ingrain anti-racist action within their school cultures. In UCL’s report they also found that teaching around extremism was ‘highly variable’ and sometimes ‘tokenistic’, and that a focus around reporting this behaviour, rather than educating against it, does little to address the problem - and can even make educators less likely to act.