Counter-Terrorism Measures in the Classroom: The Importance of Professionalism, Agency and Autonomy When Enacting the Prevent Duty

Abstract

The Prevent policy was singular and ‘simple’: to prevent individuals from getting drawn into terrorism, to identify and stop this process before it begins. In the context of the global war on terror and the shadow of terrorist attacks in the United States and England, this was an increasingly growing issue within the media and the broader public discourse. A central institution charged with enacting Prevent in the United Kingdom were education institutions (schools, colleges and universities), the rationale being that these places of learning house individuals during impressionable and vulnerable times and the Prevent policy can protect these individuals.

This chapter will provide an alternative critical discussion on Prevent by framing it as the securitisation of the UK education sector. As such, Prevent is a form of surveillance and a mechanism of power over educators and learners which carry counterproductive consequences for both. In doing so, this chapter will question how education professionals balance their professional identity and their new role in supporting and enacting the Prevent duty. Through developing a new multi-level ‘Critical Realist World Systems Model’, this chapter will provide a conceptual discussion of Prevent policy more broadly and how education professionals navigate the friction between their professional values and legal obligations. This chapter draws on a range of theoretical traditions to begin to question a well-established security policy within English and Welsh educational institutions providing a conceptual starting point to examine similar and future policies.

Citation

Weedon, M., Higgins, K.M. and Burke, C. (2024), "Counter-Terrorism Measures in the Classroom: The Importance of Professionalism, Agency and Autonomy When Enacting the Prevent Duty", Waller, R., Andrews, J. and Clark, T. (Ed.) Critical Perspectives on Educational Policies and Professional Identities, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 229-246. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83753-332-920241014