Do educators need to challenge dangerous ideologies?
Recently I watched Ordinary men: The Forgotten Holocaust on Netflix. The documentary focuses on how Nazi killing squads were comprised of ordinary men who, before they became killers, held regular jobs in the community. Many high ranking officers were well-educated men whose education was indoctrination that Jews were Bolsheviks and a threat to German nationalism. The research uncovered in this compelling piece of cinema taught me several facts I had not learned as a history major.
But the vital message I got from this documentary is that ordinary people in extraordinary socio-political situations can be driven to extreme actions. The chilling reality can be seen in a BBC documentary on YouTube, Fear and Loathing in South Africa which shows you the extent to which xenophobia is gaining traction in communities in South Africa.
Today the Global South is not the only region in the world confronted with dangerous ideologies of othering. A YouTube video titled, Danish Utopia no more (see link in the comments) highlights the populist backlash that Muslim immigrants face in Denmark.
领英推荐
As educators we might not have the power to effect socio-political change, but at some point the perpetrators of violent ideologies would have sat in our classrooms.
What content should our lessons include?
Founder, CEO and Principal, KENNEDY COMMUNICATION STUDIO INTERNATIONAL, Best-Selling Author
1 年Shifa Desai This is a very important topic. We sre living in a reactionary world. I agree that we need to keep the dialogue going and keep educating everyone
Assistant Manager - Learning Technology at Higher Colleges of Technology
1 年I think racism, bigotry and hate have always been around, but at certain times in history, these opinions become more socially acceptable and start to be expressed and endorsed by mainstream politicians and leaders. An example in the UK is our Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, ironically her parents came to the UK as immigrants. Braverman recently gave a speech at the Conservative Party Conference, where she warned about the danger of millions of "uncontrolled and unmanageable" migrants landing on British shores. This is language that would once have been considered unacceptable in polite society. Enoch Powel in the late 60's ended his career when he warned of "rivers of blood", a classical allusion. Suella Braverman got a standing ovation. Braverman doesn't talk in term of race directly she attacks the "woke" a term that once meant, "alert to racial prejudice and discrimination", but is now used as a term of abuse. She attacks Human Rights which she says should be called "criminal rights" and she warns: “Gender ideology. White privilege. Anti-British history. The evidence demonstrates that if you don’t challenge this poison, things just get worse.”
a Delta-certified freelance online teacher
1 年Omg, I was teaching a class of Russian teenagers in KZ and was taken aback when some of them were saying that Europe is not Europe anymore because of the influx of Africans and Arabs. One of them went on talking about her shock after visiting Paris. She was mainly complaining that she barely saw white people. They didn't realize that they were saying these things to an Asian teacher. I proceeded with asking them: Who decides who should live in Europe? Etc. Unfortunately, I failed to make them question their views.
ELT/ESL teacher and teacher trainer
1 年Fear and Loathing in South Africa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rogZ8BYg-kM Danish Utopia no more https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cXpj8t_SQU&t=2437s