Eleventh Global Studies Conference

Abstract

The radicalism that leads to violent extremism is a form of social conflict since it is caused by multi-faceted psychosocial factors. Discussion about extremism is a sensitive matter in family, school, or in a community setting. Securitization of extremism-related matter further exacerbated the problem, as youth now can not find a safe space to discuss radicalism and extremism without fear of repercussions. To this end, a comprehensive pedagogical approach might be useful since such an approach is capable of providing a neutral and bipartisan knowledge-based platform where the most vulnerable social group to radicalization and extremism – youth – can be engaged. The main research question is: how do we share knowledge about dangers of violent extremism and radicalism within formal educational settings that significantly impacts the youth (age between sixteen and twenty-four) and what is the most suitable pedagogical approach (both from the content as well as delivery perspective) to counter it? Two main theoretical frameworks, social conflict and its transformation and transformative learning theories, are used in this paper. A comparative analysis of approaches adopted by the International Strategic Dialogue (ISD) and Edventure Partners (i.e. P2P) in counter-extremism content development and dissemination is presented in this paper.