Kate Hulme How does Prevent communicate with adults and children and can this be improved through use of illustration? In a world striving to understand the draws and dangerous thinking of extremist groups and individuals, the prevent strategy was devised to help prevent extremist ideologies developing in the younger generation, by way of being closely monitored by their teachers and authorities. This Dissertation will explore the main themes and concepts of the UK Prevent scheme; both within and outside the education system. The Prevent scheme has caused much controversy and clashing of opinions, with many branding it with words such as toxic and that it is creating harmful stereo-types of ethnic minorities. The writing that follows will explore both sides of these arguments and through using practical work and further research into the learning of children, try to form an understanding and framework of how we could possibly better the Prevent scheme, with a proposed final idea. It is now more than ever that the world and UK Government looks for a solution to cease the devastating attacks of terror spreading across the country. With Terror on the rise it is of paramount importance that instead of continuing to shy away from the threat, the UK begins to seek ways of opening up healthy discussion in both schools and the work place, instead of oppressing it. The scheme is of extreme importance within current society, however it appears that something which once started off with the best intentions is now at risk of becoming a much more accusing, harmful and even counterproductive piece of funding. Research into children’s books and reading shows that we can teach the younger generation many things through the simple forms of story telling, with which illustration goes hand in hand. Within this dissertation there will be exploration into whether or not illustration can play a vital part in the renewing of the Prevent scheme and helping to, almost, re-brand the idea making it more appealing, therefor helping it reach those which it claims to be helping. Where does terror begin? Where does it manifest itself? And can illustration help deter these extremist ideologies, often born out of loneliness and a deep harbouring to belong and be accepted; symptoms all too familiar with childhood.
Chapter 2 (2000 words) The Prevent scheme began in 2003 but did not become a public scheme until some years after this. The scheme is constructed of the four P’s; Prepare, Protect, Pursue, Prevent aims to tackle many forms of radicalisation. The official Prevent Duty Guidance act for England and wales issued in March 2015 states ‘Our Prevent work is intended to deal with all kinds of terrorist threats to the UK. The most significant of these threats is currently from terrorist organisations in Syria and Iraq, and Al Qa’ida associated groups. But terrorists associated with the extreme right also pose a continued threat to our safety and security.’ The act also states, ‘schools and childcare providers are expected to asses the risk of children being drawn into terrorism’. However this seems to have caused much controversy among teachers and education officials saying ‘it causes suspicion in the classroom and confusion in the staffroom’. (Adams, R 2016) From online research it seems that many teachers worry for the negative effects the scheme may, or may not be having on children, possibly warping their views of terrorism and where the threat lies. An article for BBC News titled ‘Reality Check: What is the Prevent strategy?’ quotes the NPCC ‘About 7,500 referrals were made to the scheme in 2015 - 16 - the equivalent of 20 a day’ (2017) Such a high figure could cause for concern amongst readers and officials however the article later goes on to state that ‘out of those referrals, action was taken in one in every 10 cases.’ (2017) - It could be said that this is evidence to back up teachers claims of the scheme causing ‘suspicion in the classroom’ (Adams, R 2016) when such a high number of referrals turned out to be benign, and would pose the question as to how effective the training that the scheme currently offers is. In contrast to the above, an article in the Guardian titled ‘The prevent duty is about relationships, so integrate it into pastoral support’. (Nadal, L. 2017) has responded to the Prevent strategy with trying to strengthen the relationships between teacher and student: ‘It’s proven successful, fostering an institutional culture that is focused on wellbeing, and improving the quality of relationships within the university.’
This statement is backed up by a statement by retired Chief of Manchester Police; Sir Peter Fahy “The prime responsibility for stopping young people going to Syria – has to lie with parents. If there’s one thing possibly we have made a mistake in Prevent is if we have created the impression that it is somehow the job of the Police.” (Sir Fahy, P in Halliday, J. 2015). It could be deduced from the above two statements that the future of the Prevent brand lies within the relationships it encourages young people to have, both within and outside the education system, and that this is perhaps an area for improvement. The liberal democrats manifesto says ‘they will scrap prevent altogether’ and ‘replace it with a scheme that prioritises community engagement.’ (BBC News, 2017) This could be linked back to the article on focusing the prevent duty through pastoral support Despite Prevent being aimed at counteracting many forms of hate crime, government officials and leaders have been criticised with sources saying Prevent has “led to members of Britains Muslim community feelings picked on” (Graham, C. 2017) It seems it has been this type of feedback that has been the programmes main down fall. With many teachers reluctant to implement something which would appear to stigmatise pupils of Islamic faith. It is important to note that due to twenty four hour news and social media many of the images and articles on terrorism that both children and often adults will be exposed to, contain references to Islamic faith. It is these references containing radicalised individuals posing as supporters of Islamic faith that have caused much confusion and suspicion surrounding the campaign. The same article by BBC news quotes ‘In cases where ideology was recorded, Just over half related to Islamist extremism’ however ‘nearly one in ten were linked to far right extremism’. (BBC 2017) How are they currently communicating Prevent to people? The scheme currently employs the use of an E-Learning package to teach educators on how they may be able to spot when a child is being radicalised or supporting extremist ideologies. The e learning package was critiqued at the National Union of teachers conference, where Gary Kaye, a delegate from North Yorkshire said ‘the prevent training given to many teachers was “crude and often contains loads of stereotypes”. The Prevent E-Learning package takes forty five minutes to complete and contains a series of graphics based illustrations aimed at targeting the various points. Participants are required to click through a series of questions designed to pin point the participants outstanding understanding of terrorism and what signs may indicate a child is being radicalised.
However the teachers union general secretary Christine Blower constructively criticises saying “Schools’ best contribution to countering any behaviour that could be a problem is by encouraging discussion.” (Blower, C in Adams, R 2016) - It could be argued that Blower makes a valid point in that encouraging discussion and the relationships in the classroom children would be more likely discuss their views and opinions on religious and non religious subjects. This point is backed up by a paper written by Barbara Kolucki and Dafna Lemish under UNICEF titled ‘Communicating with children’ - the paper states that ‘the role of media in children’s lives suggests that media (such as books, newspapers, magazines, television etc) serve today as one of the most centralising agents, informing behaviours, attitudes and world views (1).’ (Kolucki, B. Lemish, D 2011) From this statement it could be argued that in order to target the radicalisation of children within the education system, Prevent must allow them to be involved in the debate, and allow for more discussion within the classroom. It could also be argued that leaving a scheme such as prevent open to the eyes of children on the internet may cause much confusion and is therefor best handled by their educators. The paper also goes on to state that ‘reading to children from books that portray or promote healthy lifestyles strengthens the communication between them and their care givers.’ - from this statement it could be suggested children are more likely to discuss their views and ideologies when a stronger relationship between them and caregiver/ teacher is formed, strengthening the argument of (Nadal, L 2017) in suggesting the way to gain the most positive benefits from the Prevent programme would be integrating It into pastoral support, and ‘framing all policies and procedures related to the prevent duty with a wellbeing focus.’ (Nadal, L. 2017) It could be argued that in order to target the way a child is feeling the Prevent programme may need to find a way to engage directly with a child. The same UNICEF paper later goes on to make a statement about children ages seven to ten - ‘They gradually break free from an egocentric perspective of life - and learn to put themselves in the shoes of others.’ (Kolucki,B. Lemish,D. 2011 p20) from this statement it could be argued that ages seven to ten in a Childs life is the apt time to begin introducing the Prevent scheme and its subsidiaries, as it could be argued that once a child is able to see things from another’s view point they posses skills mature enough to be involved in debate concerning religious matters. However the same paper states that for early years children ageing birth to six ‘communication for this youngest group, has, for the most part, been targeted at their caregivers (such as family members, early childhood educators, health practitioners).’ - this could be suggestive of the fact that the Prevent schemes targeting of educators is certainly more beneficial for young children and perhaps older years and raises the question of whether it would be appropriate to leave such a heavy topic down to a Childs own discretion.
A paper titled ‘Children’s preference in picture book illustration’ conducted by John Warren Stewig. Conducted research into what children prefer when reading picture books alongside the opinions of what the adults thought the children would like. It was ‘found that children prefer books with more than 25% of the space in pictures. Large pictures were most popular.’ and that ‘brilliant colour should be applied in not too literal or realistic a way.’ A side line of the Prevent brand has been ‘Lets talk about it’ the site has received much more positive comment and aims at allowing children to interact within the site. Allowing for questions and discussion, an interactive section of the site titled ‘Do you recognise this person’ - providing information and signs that both children and adults can engage with and use to spot whether they feel someone they know may be being radicalised. It is from the success of this more engaging and interactive strategy that it could be concluded that perhaps profession of illustration and graphic design may be of beneficial
Chapter 3 (1500 words) Case Study 1 Australian Writer and Public intellectual Germaine Greer was banned from giving a lecture at Cardiff university in 2015, for making comments about how she did not feel transgender women were in fact real women. Her opinions on the matter caused huge uproar as would be expected - an article in the Guardian titled ‘Germaine Greer gives university lecture despite campaign to silence her’ (Morris,S. 2015) the article goes on to talk about how the views Greer expressed were ‘transphobic’ (Morris,S 2015) with Author Elwyn Way commenting ‘trans people were suffering emotional and physical violence and needed to be protected rather than vilified’ (Way,E in Morris,S 2015). It is certain the views and opinions expressed by Greer were unpopular ones, however it could be argued that an incident such as this could be related back to issues within the prevent campaign. As earlier contributed by (Blower, C in Adams, R 2016) “Schools’ best contribution to countering any behaviour that could be a problem is by encouraging discussion.” - it could be argued that Greers controversial comments hold a candle up to this statement. From the headlines surrounding Greers comments on transgender women; such as ‘Germaine Greer defends “grossly offensive” comments about transgender women’ by the Independent to comments naming her as ‘transphobic’ (Morris, S 2015).
It would be easily understandable that anyone sharing similar views would feel silenced and even vilified. This media storm poses the question of whether banning Greer from lecturing to university students is in fact doing the opposite for their education, is it healthy to pretend the opinions of others do not exist? and would it be more beneficial to the learning of children, adults and that of the prevent programme to allow these views to be shared? Germaine Greers situation teaches an arguably unhealthy lesson, of that; freedom of speech, is it ones own peril. Referring back to the earlier statement in UNICEFs ‘Communicating with Children’ Paper, ‘the role of media in children’s lives suggests that media (such as books, newspapers, magazines, television etc) serve today as one of the most centralising agents, informing behaviours, attitudes and world views (1).’ (Kolucki, B. Lemish, D 2011) - It could be argued from this statement particularly concerning ‘world views’ that children will at the ages of seven to ten (as stated by UNICEF) be coming in to contact with topics such as this, via the internet and social media platforms. It could be said this raises the importance of teaching children to share with their care givers when they feel their views are being changed or possibly even radicalised, instead it could be argued that from cases such as Greers, children are taught not to share their opinions, for fear of them being that of the lesser majority the question could be posed of how educators are to spot signs of radicalisation if a child is fearful of freedom of speech.
Noma Bar Israeli born Graphic designer, Illustrator and artist creates punchy and powerful shape driven work that tells a story in one blink of the eye. Bar recently created a series of three works titled ‘Prévenir La Radicalisation, C’est possible’ translating to ‘Preventing Radicalisation, it is possible’. The main image of the trio shows a black, white and red balaclava clad character with octopus tentacles. The strong graphic image is eye catching and could be easily interpreted for children. Bar cleverly uses the octopus shape to refer to the radicalisation process, its tentacles serve as a warning almost, do not get tangled up in this, could be interpreted, as well as a visual metaphor for explaining the acts committed by extremist groups are inhuman. The top of the image is written ‘ET MOI…’ translating to ‘AND ME…’ it could be deduced from this written statement in the piece that the work is addressing the viewer, ‘and me’; almost a question, instantly involving the viewer in the subject of the work and opening up discussion. It could be argued that one of the most powerful aspects of Graphic design or Illustration in this context is the thing or things representing a radicalised individual doesn’t need to be real or even human, in this there is power. As contributed earlier there has been controversy over the Prevent campaign due to teachers and officials
who feel the programme stigmatises the Muslim community - “led to members of Britains Muslim community feeling picked on” (Graham, C. 2017) - earlier discussion in this essay references the UNICEF paper ‘Communicating with Children’ (Kolucki, B. Lemish, D 2011) - and how ‘books, newspapers, magazines, television etc) serve today as one of the most centralising agents’ (Kolucki, B. Lemish, D 2011). Teaching us that children from a young age have access to news platforms. This is a problem, as it is arguable that many images placed next to news articles surrounding terrorism contain references to Islamic faith. It can be said that the use of such images by newspapers and websites is ignorant and ill considered, especially for the eyes of children. It could be argued Graphic design and Illustration offer a far less accusing or harmful approach to the subject. It could be interpreted in Bars image that the character instead of wearing a balaclava, wears a Hijab. However it could be argued that using a piece such as this to encourage discussion may be of extreme benefit to a child, as supported by Blower,C in Adams, R - ‘encouraging discussion’ on the differences of Islamic faith and and radicalised individuals of whom purport Islamic faith.
Illustrator Øivind Hovland working in partnership with The Financial Times (2013) created a series of illustrations for an editorial on Cyber crime. The images of Hovland are much more playful and interactive than that of Noma Bar and pose a potential new way of communicating the Prevent scheme through illustration… On his blog Hovland writes ‘The inside illustration is slightly more surreal. Your computer has been hacked and is open for anyone who knows how to open it.’ It could be argued that using metaphors such as safes would help engage a Childs imagination
Chapter 4 (Reflective practice 700 words) Descriptive Analysis of the work produced? In this chapter I will be explaining the relevance of the work both written and practical, produced for my question:How does Prevent communicate with adults and children and can this be improved through use of illustration? Firstly I wish to cite the relevance of the Germaine Greer media storm on the topic of transgender women. Through my research into the Prevent campaign it was clear to me that many of the issues being raised by teachers and officials alike were in reference to the campaign not encouraging discussion, therefor breeding the ‘suspicion' and ‘confusion’ (Adams, R 2016) earlier spoken about. I believe through my research into children’s learning in regards to the UNICEF ‘communicating with children’ paper that encouraging freedom of speech will be of paramount importance to increasing the success of the Prevent scheme. I found a likeness to this in the Greer articles, “I’m not saying that people should not be allowed to go through with that procedure, all I’m saying is that it doesn’t make them a woman”. (Greer, G in Saul, H 2015) I found her case so interesting because although it is understandable that her opinions may cause upset, they cannot, and should not, be viewed as wrong. I found it particularly interesting that the university of Cardiff decided to ban Greer from lecturing there, I believe this highlights a major problem within our current society; that freedom of speech would appear to no longer exist. Instead by publicising events such as Greers we teach young people to be scared of voicing their opinions, hence the title of my children’s book ‘A monster of all the things… I never said’. However one of the main things that inspired my children’s book was the amount of material I found online relating to Islam, I came to realise that a large proportion of articles surrounding the Prevent campaign held references to Islam and often showed images of people of Muslim faith. I strongly felt the use of these images by such newspapers was wrong. As without realising it we begin to form connections with image and article, I strongly felt that this bred negative and untrue opinions of ethic minorities - for this reason, my children’s book focuses on a negative presence itself, which I convey in the form of a monster. A monster whom one day appears in your cupboard. The thought behind this was that the negative presence/ monster can be used as a metaphor for many things such as child abuse, radicalisation, sexual abuse, bullying etc.
The monster simply represents how destructive it can be to keep thoughts and feelings to yourself, I show this through the growth of the monster, when the child is too ashamed to tell anyone, the monster grows larger. I would also like to reference the importance of the work of Noma Bar within this point, as earlier concluded in Bars ‘Prévenir La Radicalisation, C’est possible’ there was power in the fact that the image created; portrayed something inhuman, I would argue that my book uses a similar effect as it does not portray nor stigmatise any group of people. The book is also without any characters other than the monster, I did this intentionally as I didn’t want the reader to make any assumptions about who this happens to. The book has two pages which are simple and each contain rhetorical questions ‘What should I do?’ and ‘Or was there?’ - I took inspiration for this again from the work of Bar, and the use of the ‘ET MOI…’ statement. As I designed the book to be used in a classroom to help encourage the debate of difficult topics. I created these pages to enable the teacher to pause, and go round the classroom asking the children what they should do in a situation such as this, or one that might be similar. It could be argued that these rhetorical questions are one of the most powerful aspects of the book, as they encompass much of the debate which has surrounded Prevent, regarding ‘encouraging debate’ (Blower, C in Adams, R 2016). I would like to cite the reference of UNICEFs ‘Communicating with children’ (Kolucki, B. Lemish, D 2011) paper. ‘Reading to children from books that portray or promote healthy lifestyles strengthens the communication between them and their caregivers.’ (Kolucki, B. Lemish, D 2011) Although it could be argued that my book does not portray a healthy lifestyle all the way through, due to the child feeling ashamed - I feel it could be said that this is important to the narrative. ‘A monster of all the things… I never said’ can also be used outside the classroom at home with parents, for this I would like to refer back to an earlier statement cited by retired Chief of Police, Sir Peter Fahy “The prime responsibility for stopping young people going to Syria – has to lie with parents. If there’s one thing possibly we have made a mistake in Prevent is if we have created the impression that it is somehow the job of the Police.” (Sir Fahy, P in Halliday, J. 2015).
To conclude my picture book can be used in many different contexts, either at home to improve the relationship between parent/ caregiver and child but also as an educational tool for encouraging debate within the classroom. I feel it has captured the point of encouraging freedom of speech in our younger generation and has done so through use of a conceptual idea, designed to remove stereotypes and stigmatisation of ethic minorities.
Chapter 5 (conclusion 400 words) A brief summary of your key findings During the research and writing of this paper, I found the topic of Prevent to be an extremely touchy and contentious subject, mainly due to its surrounding subjects with cross wires through religion. I feel it could be argued that the media has played a large part in the negativity around the campaign - mainly due to careless placement of images used within articles picturing ethnic minorities. It could be argued that much material surrounding critiquing of the campaign contains images as such. When writing this essay and speaking to those around me on the subject I again found it to be extremely contentious and very touchy. People rarely offered up their own opinions on the debate and seemed reluctant to say how the topic made them feel. I found this of interest and inspired much of the writing in the essay focusing around freedom of speech especially in the case of my first case study Germaine Greer. It could be argued that it is this attitude, of which I believe I have picked up on that has inspired much of the backlash of the campaign. In my findings I discovered Prevent rarely deals with children themselves, and directs the campaign through the responsibility of their caregivers. It is arguably this factor that is one the programmes main issues‌ We have seen in current articles and academic papers that encouraging reading and debate in children’s lives can have a direct influence on the relationship to them and their parents and guardians. Points have been made by political’s such as Sir Peter Fahy that it is these relationships which will mostly determine the paths a child choses to take. From this I believe at can be argued that Prevent is doing the right thing in trying to reach children through their caregivers, however there must be in a shift in what happens after this point. Prevent must directly encourage a difference in the way we teach and learn with children. Encouraging a child to be confident in their own right to free speech.
Bibliography Richard Adams, Teachers back mention calling for prevent strategy to be scrapped The guardian (2016) The Telegraph, Chris Graham, 26th May, 2017 UK anti-radicalisation Prevent strategy a ‘toxic brand’, The Guardian, Josh Halliday and Vikram Dodd, 9th March 2015 Education against extremism, Lynn Davies, 2008, Birmingham Germaine Greer gives university lecture despite campaign to silence her, The Guardian, Steven Morris, 2015: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/nov/18/transgender-activists-protestgermaine-greer-lecture-cardiff-university Germaine Greer defends grossly offensive comments about transgender women, Heather Saul, 2015, The independent : http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/germaine-greer-defends-grosslyoffensive-comments-about-transgender-women-just-because-you-lop-offa6709061.html Communicating with children, UNICEF, (Kolucki, B. Lemish, D 2011): https:// www.unicef.org/cwc/files/CwC_Final_Nov-2011(1).pdf Reality check: what it the Prevent strategy?, BBC News, 2017: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ news/election-2017-40151991