Counter terrorism, Security, Strategy, Education, Prison 

This paper outlines some of the implications of counterterrorist
legislation, including Prevent, for the pedagogical relationship and for
educational institutions. The concept of ‘radicalisation’, central to the
Prevent Strategy, is one that is contested in the field of counterterrorism,
yet educators are now expected to identify and refer students ‘at risk of
radicalisation’. Such students are described as vulnerable throughout the
policy documentation; however, the way in which vulnerability is conceptualised
is resonant with colonial discourses of contagion and immunity, and
it risks silencing and even pathologising the person labelled vulnerable.
Prevent does not clearly define central concepts such as extremism, radicalisation,
vulnerability, and this may make both students and staff fearful
speaking freely in classrooms and lecture halls. Based on the experience of
teaching IRA and INLA prisoners in the Republic of Ireland, the author
outlines a set of philosophical and ethical principles that ought to underpin
education. It is argued that education must not be subordinated to security
and intelligence agendas on pragmatic, educational and ethical grounds. 

25 p.; 25 cm