Chapter 5 The Potential of Civic and Citizenship Education to Preventing Right-Wing Extremism

In: The Challenge of Radicalization and Extremism
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Sabine Manzel
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Abstract

In recent years, populist and right-wing parties and organizations have been on the rise in Germany. All of them share ethnic, anti-human, and racist beliefs. Borum’s mindset is the key starting point for the theoretical analysis of the potential of civic and citizenship education for preventing right-wing extremism. Following a brief introduction of the current situation of right-wing terrorism in Germany, the article touches upon the challenges which citizenship education is facing today. In a next step, Borum’s model is connected with Helmke’s utilization of learning opportunities model and Detjen et al.’s model of political competence to highlight the potential of citizenship education to preventing young people from embracing right-wing extremism and to strengthening their democratic identity.

Menschenfeindliche Hetze war in der Vergangenheit und sie ist auch heute der Nährboden für Gewalt bis hin zum Mord. Wer diesen Nährboden düngt, macht sich mitschuldig. [Anti-human incitement has been in the past and is still today the breeding ground for violence, even culminating in murder. Anyone who fertilizes this breeding ground is complicit.]

Schäuble (2019)

1 Introduction

Kassel, Halle, and Hanau are three German cities which mark the threat to democracy of right-wing terrorism in Germany. In June 2019, the regional district president of Kassel, Walter Lübcke was shot to death by a right-wing extremist. In October 2019, another right-wing extremist tried to enter the Jewish synagogue in Halle to kill the worshippers. He did not gain entry to the synagogue due to a heavy door, so he killed two people on the street instead. In February 2020, a third right-wing extremist killed nine people with migration backgrounds in a Shisha-bar in Hanau.

It is not only these assassinations which urge policymakers and the government to act but also the constant number of citizens in the German society among whom right-wing populist, far right-wing, and extremist attitudes are becoming ever more popular, resulting in an increasing number of right-wing, extremist-motivated incidents of violence and crimes. In the 1970s, German society faced a series of incidents of left-wing extremist violence, but today it is mostly confronted with anti-immigration sentiments, Euroscepticism, religious extremism, Islamic extremism, and Salafism. This chapter focuses on right-wing extremism and right-wing terrorism. Borum’s thesis that ‘an individual’s mindset and worldview establish a psychological climate’ for or against radicalization or the risk ‘of involvement in violent extremism’ (2014, p. 287) is the key starting point in this chapter for the theoretical considerations regarding the preventive potential of civic and citizenship education.

The chapter starts with a definition of right-wing extremism and right-wing terrorism. Following a brief outline the current situation of right-wing terrorism in Germany, this chapter touches upon the challenges citizenship and civic education are facing today. The difference between participation in school and outside of school is highlighted with reference to international research. The idea of good citizenship is discussed. The role of attitudes as a protective factor against right-wing extremism leads to the key point of this chapter: the linkage of three theoretical models. Borum’s mindset is combined with the learning opportunities model (Angebots-Nutzungs-Modell, Helmke, 2010, p. 73) and the model of political competence (Detjen et al., 2012) in order to identify opportunities for preventing radicalization through citizenship education in schools. It is assumed that civic and citizenship education can support young people in building their identities, developing values, and strengthening their self-concepts, and that it encourages their participation in society. The objective of this chapter is to aggregate existing knowledge and to stimulate new ideas for evaluating the potential of citizenship education to prevent radicalization. Due to the lack of empirical findings, these theoretical ideas have to be taken as recommendations rather than evidence-based advice.

2 Right-Wing Extremism

A definition of right-wing extremism as opposed to right-wing terrorism is the basis for the considerations in this chapter.

2.1 Definitions

2.1.1 Right-Wing Extremism

Right-wing extremism is often used as a generic term for antidemocratic attitudes and behaviours. Even if the term is discussed in a controversial manner, there is a consensus (Salzborn, 2014) on the ideology of inequality which devaluates people according to their ethnic origin, race, religion, class, gender, or sexual orientation. This leads to anti-Semitism, racism, and xenophobia, which is in accordance with Heitmeyer’s prominent sociological conception of group-based hostility (2002). Other elements of right-wing extremism are the desire for an authoritarian state, the denial of pluralistic values in democracy, anti-liberalism, the acceptance and use of violence, as well as the trivialization and justification of the National Socialist era and the Second World War. Alongside the criticism of the theoretical foundation, several researchers developed a scale for measuring right-wing extremism and right-wing attitudes since the year 2000 (e.g. Decker et al., 2014; Best et al., 2013; Zick et al., 2017).

2.1.2 Right-Wing Terrorism

A binding and generally accepted definition of right-wing terrorism is not available yet due to the problem that common definitions of terrorism cannot simply be transferred to the type of political violence and terrorism motivated by right-wing ideologies. ‘Right-wing extremist terror often fell through the cracks of security agencies. … This concerned the character and forms of organization of the terrorists, the specifics of their mode of action, and the composition of victim groups’ (Botsch, 2019, p. 10). This article uses Virchow’s definition, who describes terrorism ‘as planned, not only singularly violent, actions by (semi-) secret individual actors or groups that aim to create fear and intimidation among a larger number of people and/or to influence decisions of political actors or social groups without aiming for personal enrichment’ (Virchow, 2019, p. 15).

3 Right-Wing Extremism in Germany

Over the past ten years, there has been a constant trend towards populist and right-wing parties and organizations, like the Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany) party (AfD), the Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the Occident (Pegida) movement, the Pro-Chemnitz movement, and the Identitäre Bewegung (Identitarian movement). All of these share ethnic, anti-human and racist beliefs. In 2016, a record 23,555 right-wing motivated criminal offenses were recorded (Bundesministerium des Innern, für Bau und Heimat [BMI], 2018), and the number is rising steadily. This section begins by giving an insight into actual statistics regarding right-wing extremism in Germany and the political debate and legislative attempts to deal with it. Next, some empirical findings of the prominent Mitte-Studien (Studies of the Political Centre) are presented. These findings underpin the necessity to act in politics and society, and this insight leads to the section concerning the role of civic education.

3.1 Politically Motivated Right-Wing Violence and Crimes

At the end of 2018, the strength of the extremist movement amounted to a total of 24,100 members after deducting multiple memberships. As in the previous reporting year, 12,700 people were classified as violent; of these, more than one in two people were considered right-wing extremists. After an increase in right-wing extremist crimes and violence in 2015 and 2016 followed by a significant decrease in 2017, the number of crimes reduced by 0.3% in 2018, while the number of violent acts increased by 3.2% (BMI, 2018, p. 10). Xenophobia and anti-Semitism remain the decisive motive for right-wing extremist violent acts. The new high-profile images of enemies for right-wing extremists include asylum seekers and Muslims as well as political decision-makers.

Supporters and sympathizers of the right-wing extremist scene use the internet intensively to promote campaigns, mobilize for events, or plan actions. Social media networks, short news services such as Twitter, or video platforms such as YouTube are the core tools for right-wing extremists for communicating and spreading their ideology. Social media is not only used by right-wing extremist propaganda but also promotes the emergence of new actors. Following the assaults in Hanau and Halle, it is assumed that there is a new type of extremist, the so-called lone wolf, who is highly active on the internet and who has almost no real social life (Hartleb, 2020, p. 3). Hate speech and virtual extremism incite the lone wolf to eventually carry out attacks in real life and, most recently, also stream them live on the internet. For this reason, the German government coalition of the CDU and the SPD is currently planning to tighten the Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG). The new law aims to fight more effectively hate crime, criminally punishable fake news, and other unlawful content on social networks. This includes insult, malicious gossip, defamation, public incitement to crime, incitement to hatred, the dissemination of portrayals of violence, and threatening the commission of a felony. In February 2020, the German Ministry of Justice presented a bill that must be debated and voted on in the German Parliament. The new iteration of the NetzDG includes a reporting obligation for social media platforms such as Facebook or WhatsApp if there is concrete evidence that social network content fulfils the offence of incitement or death. ‘BKA CEO Holger Münch sees this new reporting obligation as an essential building block for tackling hate speech and hatred online. “Hate crime has reached a degree that threatens democracy”, Münch said at the European Police Congress at the beginning of February’ (Marx, 2020). The German Federal Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer has announced plans to ramp up the fight against right-wing extremism and right-wing terrorism. ‘That is why we are further strengthening the BKA and BfV in terms of personnel and structure’, he has said. ‘Both authorities will each receive another 300 additional posts for these tasks’ (BMI, 2019b). The political show of strength of tightening the law and increasing executive powers can contribute to a clear communication of the framing and demarcation of the democratically secured and legally protected freedom of expression and assembly, but it does not abolish the reasons for, or halt, the spread of right-wing extremism among citizens. The next section offers a quick insight into some empirical studies about right-wing attitudes in Germany.

4 Exploring Right-Wing Attitudes: The Mitte-Studien (Studies of the Political Centre)

Since 2002, two different sets of research have explored the right-wing attitudes of German citizens using a representative set of data, namely the FES-Mitte-Studien (Friedrich Ebert Foundation studies of the political centre to determine the prevalence of right-wing attitudes in Germany) and the GMF-Studien (Studies of the political centre to capture the prevalence of group-focused hostility). The results of research on right-wing extremist attitudes in Germany in 2002 were alarming. 30% of East Germans and 24% of West Germans had xenophobic attitudes. This percentage varied over the following years but is back at the same level in 2016. In 2018, 55% of East and West Germans reported feeling like foreigners in their own country due to the presence of Muslims (Decker & Brähler, 2018, p. 18). The Bertelsmann Foundation’s populism barometer shows a populist attitude among 30.5% of Germans, and this trend is rising (Vehrkamp & Merkel, 2018, p. 25). ‘Soft’ right-wing populist attitudes are more widespread than far-right ones. One in five surveyed people has right-wing populist attitudes. Right-wing populist attitudes are more widespread among East Germans than among West Germans. Zick et al. report that 51% of East Germans had right-wing populist tendencies in 2015, and 52% in 2016. By contrast, 39% of West Germans had right-wing populist tendencies in 2015, and 37% in 2016 (Zick et al., 2016, p. 119). Right-wing populist attitudes appear to be becoming stable and more normal in society. Botsch criticizes the term populism as a strategy for avoidance and trivialization in order not to address the right-wing threats to democracy which are grounded in populist arguments (Botsch, as cited in Decker & Brähler, 2018, p. 31). Bearing in mind these radicalization trends and the development of right-wing attitudes, politicians, and society must (re)act against these tendencies in order to protect democracy. Demands for political education for democracy in schools and extracurricular political education arise frequently, with a view to combating racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and other dimensions of group-related hostility towards human beings. The next section introduces the global concepts for citizenship education and describes the specific challenges which citizenship and civic education faces in the German education system.

5 Challenges for Citizenship and Civic Education

Several international organizations have developed concepts for citizenship education in the future, e.g. the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Learning Compass 2030 (Rychen, 2016), the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (United Nations, 2015), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (2014) Global Citizenship Education, and the Reference Framework for Competences for Democratic Culture (Council of Europe, 2018). Each concept demands that education should foster the knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes for young learners ‘to build a more just, peaceful and sustainable world and to thrive as global citizens in the twenty-first century’ (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, 2014, p. 9). The concept of global citizenship is positively connoted in numerous political and democratic-theoretical conceptions. Citizenship competence is one of the eight key competences for democratic culture (Council of Europe, 2018), and high expectations are being placed on mature citizens regarding their problem-solving abilities and their active and responsible contributions to a solidarity-based, pluralistic community.

5.1 A Federal Goal: Citizenship Education in Germany

Education for democracy is anchored as a goal for each federal state in Germany. The following statement is taken from the website of the German Federal Ministry of the Interior under the heading ‘Society and the Constitution’:

Civic education is an essential part of democracy. Since the Federal Republic of Germany was first founded, civic education has evolved into an independent task with two main objectives:

  1. to ensure that individuals have the knowledge and skills they need to form independent opinions and make informed decisions;
  2. to enable them to reflect on their own situation, recognize and meet their own responsibilities to society and play an active role in social and political processes. (BMI, 2016)

The strategy of the German Standing Conference of Education Minister’s titled ‘Education in the Digital World’ focuses on ‘individual and self-directed learning, maturity, identity formation … and self-determined participation in the digital society’ (Kultusministerkonferenz, 2016, p. 10). The political competence model of Detjen et al. (2012) mentions not only attitudes, motivation, and knowledge, reasoning, and judgement skills, but also the ability to participate. To argue competently involves not only the articulation of interests but also persuasive reasoning. The key competences of knowledge, attitudes, participation, and argumentation skills seem to be identical in global concepts for citizenship education.

The normative objectives thus meet an empirically different reality. International school performance studies such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS), and the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA)’s International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) indicate that the knowledge, skills, and willingness of students in Germany to participate are partly below the European Union and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average, and that the German school system continues to produce social inequalities along intersectional lines (school form, migration experience, gender, and socioeconomic characteristics, see Deimel et al., 2019). This could be explained by the small number of hours available for citizenship lessons (Gökbudak & Hedtke, 2019) and the high proportion of inexperienced teachers with no domain-specific diploma (Manzel et al., 2017).

A comparison of European data from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS, see Schulz et al., 2017) from 2016 shows that political knowledge affects the dimensions of identity, political attitudes, political trust, and participation as well as self-efficacy. In the study Youth and Democracy conducted in Saxony-Anhalt, students reported that citizenship education is not very action-oriented and that they are assigned a rather passive, receptive role (Kötters-König, 2001, p. 7). Participatory competence with the facets of negotiation and decision-making is often only possible in political education via simulations (e.g. role-playing games). The hierarchical relationship between teachers and learners (e.g. giving grades) in combination with clear educational requirements (curricula) in schools does not leave sufficient scope for real participation experiences in regular classes. In projects, youth council elections, or extracurricular excursions, students have the opportunity to gain active, experimental, and participatory experiences in a predefined space; but they also encounter resistance and power relations, which make their participation and the experience of self-efficacy difficult. Mager and Nowak (2012) demonstrate that approaches to student participation, such as student representation or student co-administration, have positive effects on the political efficacy of young people.

5.2 Civic Participation of Young People in and outside of School

The previous section has set out the difficulties of civic education in German schools. The next section refers to some studies conducted in other countries which face the same problem. The section contrasts the participatory role of young people within school with their actual participation outside of the school context. The concept of being a good citizen is questioned due to the fact that participation can also lead young people to stray from the democratic path, for example towards participation in right-wing demonstrations or by creating extremist posts in contested social media channels. Civic engagement and political action per se are not a guarantee for democracy. The alienation of young people from politics as highlighted by the Shell Youth Study 2019 is discussed as well as normative ideas regarding democratic competences.

The limited possibilities for engagement and participation in school are addressed by Oser and Biedermann (2006) for Switzerland: ‘(a) students can participate significantly more in their families than in school and (b) they are not involved in decision-making processes in school about topics which influence their lives prima facie’ (p. 25). A recent study in Swedish schools also indicates that students are more likely to be seen as learning objects. They are informed, show respect for others, submit their own proposals, but they go unheard and have to accept teachers’ decisions:

It could be argued that in the context of formal student participation, students are almost robbed of democratic experiences and unauthorized as a collective to act politically in school, which will have consequences for their future democratic experiences, attitudes, and knowledge.

(Anderson, 2019, p. 161)

Only 37% of young people eligible to vote went to the polls in the UK in 2005, although their political interest remains unbroken (Henn & Ford, 2012). At the same time, they have a low self-esteem in terms of their political knowledge and a low sense of effectiveness in influencing political decision-making processes (Henn & Ford, 2012, pp. 53–55). Despite high voter abstinence and declining commitment to formal politics (Putnam, 2000), young people participate in civic (mass) movements such as Fridays for Future, or they show their opinions through unconventional methods such as flash mobs, product boycotts, and Twitter or YouTube posts. However, the 18th Shell Youth Study of 2019 (Albert et al., 2019) shows a slight downward trend in the willingness of young people to participate; apparently only those interested in politics are becoming significantly more active. Those interested in politics and civic participation can be young people with democratic values but also young people with right-wing attitudes. Decker et al. (2016) explain the rising willingness to participate among right-wing extremists with the transformation of attitudes into action. This leads to right-wing demonstrations such as Pegida, Pro-Chemnitz, or anti–fake-news-on-coronavirus demonstrations such as took place in the spring of 2020. Researchers and politicians warn against infiltration by right-wing extremists. According to Quent, director of the Institute for Democracy and Civil Society in Jena, the protest movement Widerstand 2020 (Resistance 2020) is currently a diffuse pool of enemies of science, conspiracy theorists, right-wing populists, and left-wing opponents of vaccination. He has analysed the organization’s online presence and comments: ‘The content is particularly distributed in right-wing and partly anti-Semitic circles. For example, the idea of an immunity card is equated with the Jewish star in National Socialism’ (Quent, as cited in Frenzel, 2020). ‘Immunity card’ here relates to the suggestion that the detection of antibodies to the COVID-19 virus might support the creation of ‘immunity passports’ that would enable individuals to resume their normal lives; however, at this time, there is no evidence that people who have COVID-19 antibodies are actually protected from a second infection (World Health Organization, 2020). An immunity card would therefore ‘label’ different groups of people and could lead to discrimination.

As explained in the previous paragraph, the alienation from institutionalized politics combined with ‘committed scepticism’ (O’Toole et al., 2003, p. 51) meets an expansion of opportunities for civic participation outside of the classical electoral arena in recent years (Norris, 2002). New forms of collective as well as individual action are on the rise (Theocharis & van Deth, 2017). With smartphones and mobile internet access, a vast quantity of (political) information is available in a wide variety of contexts which requires corresponding digital skills from citizens as well as the ability and knowledge to differentiate between real and fake news in order to make a reason-based judgement concerning contested political issues (Manzel, 2017).

Participation in non-institutionalized and personalized formats is increasing. The video on the destruction of the CDU by the German YouTube influencer Rezo (2019) illustrates how the borders between the private and public spheres are becoming blurred and shows the impact of new media participation on traditional democratic parties. Deliberative discourses in public spaces are facing new challenges due to the transformation of the media landscape through the internet and social media channels. Although 77% of young people in Germany are satisfied with democracy, 24% are inclined towards populism (Albert et al., 2019). Young people are not willing to participate in public discourse because of a deep disappointment with encrusted and ineffective political structures, non-responsiveness, or because of their socioeconomic status (SES). These selection mechanisms generate and reinforce power and inequality relations and thus undermine bridging and bonding in society. The International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS, Fraillon et al., 2018) impressively demonstrates the division between digital natives with high digital skills and marginalized digital immigrants who often have migration backgrounds and low SES. Although all citizens can publish their own views on the internet via social media channels without gatekeepers, opportunities for participation in political decision-making are strongly influenced by sociodemographic factors.

Bearing in mind the difficulties that young people are facing in and outside of school and along different participation forms such as elections, demonstrations, boycott, or social media posts, it is important not to overlook the vital role of attitudes towards democracy. The following paragraph further debates the idea of good citizenship and its impact on citizenship education.

Westheimer’s concept of good citizenship (2015) includes participation not only as singular actions by citizens outside of the political arena and its institutions but also as common initiatives for the common good and the need for governance legitimated by majority decisions. There are numerous projects of action-oriented community learning settings following the concept of John Dewey (1994), but the empirical evidence is controversial. One criticism is that these approaches have more to do with ‘voluntarism, charity, and obedience’ (Westheimer, 2015, p. 37) than with democracy. ‘Service learning and non-profit engagement without reflection prove to be unsustainable and must therefore be combined with school preparation and follow-up’ (Anders et al., 2020, p. 149).

In the case of secondary schools, the Education Action Council, in its current 2020 opinion, notes significant differences in the quality of citizenship lessons in different school forms (Anders et al., 2020). As a result, pupils in primary and secondary schools are systematically disadvantaged in acquiring democratic skills. This is worrying because according to the Shell Youth Study 2019, young people with low levels of education are particularly vulnerable to populist influence (Albert et al., 2019). In addition, the study shows that young people overall are more interested in politics once again while at the same time the disenchantment with politicians among the young generation is high. More than two-thirds of young people do not feel represented by politicians. Around a quarter are open to populist arguments. This point emphasizes the importance of planting the seeds for identification with democratic values in citizenship education. Especially in communities characterized by high levels of segregation and social inequality, citizenship education is necessary in order to strengthen young people with experiences of marginalization and exclusion such as racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia.

Citizenship education is expected to foster self-efficacy and problem-solving skills so that young people identify with democracy and do not drift into extreme milieus. But even if researchers in the didactics of citizenship education in Germany are dealing with right-wing extremism (e.g. Behrens, 2019; Hafeneger et al., 2019; Schedler et al., 2019; Besand, 2018; Schmitt, 2018; Möllers & Manzel, 2017), there is a lack of empirical data regarding the potential of citizenship education lessons at school to prevent right-wing attitudes and right-wing extremist actions in young people. It has not yet been proven whether citizenship lessons and an education for democracy can contribute to the development of individual protective factors, which include a sense of social belonging, empathic behaviours, and the ability to understand the perspective of others.

The role of attitudes leads to the next section, which briefly presents multiple explanations for the development of far-right attitudes. A helpful concept for a new theoretical model for a type of citizenship education that prevents young people from radicalization and terrorism seems to be Borum’s mindset, which is introduced in this section.

6 Explanations for the Emergence of Right-Wing Attitudes

6.1 Radicalization Patterns

There are multiple explanations for why young people change their attitudes towards far-right or extremist values (Baier et al., 2006; Zick & Küpper, 2009). Zick and Küpper emphasize that extreme right-wing patterns ‘arise from the interaction of individual, intergroup and social factors’ (p. 299) and thus constitute the result of a complex development process. Prejudices often pave the way for discriminatory behaviours due to the negative assessment of individuals or groups of people with a different group affiliation. This kind of behaviour often manifests itself as social discrimination (Allport, 1954, pp. 51–52). The contact hypothesis generally states that contact with members of a foreign group can lead to a reduction of prejudice and an improvement in attitudes compared to this group.

Personality models for explaining far-right attitudes assume that political and social attitudes are accompanied by certain personality traits. The affinity for political extremism can also be favoured by certain characteristics of a person. One of the personality models is the concept of the authoritarian character according to Adorno et al. (1950). As the primary socialization authority, parents play an important role in the development of political orientations. Children assume certain affective ties to nations and parties and develop basic competences based on their parents’ views, which they later transfer to politics (Sann & Preiser, 2008). Gniewosz and Noack (2006) highlight the importance of intra-family communication about attitudes, norms, and values in the formation of xenophobic attitudes of children and adolescents. However, Raabe and Beelmann (2009) state that negative attitudes towards foreign groups are not wave-like—as often reported—with their peaks at the ages of six and seven, and then again at fourteen to fifteen years, but instead tend to increase in their extent intra-individually. This result is ‘all the more relevant the higher the stability of prejudices and the more prejudices in adolescence and adulthood are dependent on developmental conditions in childhood’ (Raabe & Beelmann, 2009, p. 116). It should also be mentioned that the numbers of victims of violence inflicted by parents are increasing (Bergmann et al., 2019, p. 3).

Deprivation, victimization by parents or other people, an affinity for violence, and right-wing attitudes are seen as potential risk factors for becoming a right-wing extremist. Students with lower levels of formal education commit more right-wing motivated crimes than students with a higher formal education (Krieg et al., 2019, p. 146). Committing a political crime can mark the end of a development process. In this respect, children and particularly young people are endangered by far-right ideas and popular propaganda as their political attitudes can still be shaped and exploited (Maresch & Bliesener, 2015). Far-right attitudes are usually preceded by far-right behaviours. Of course, the opposite is also conceivable: far-right motivated criminal acts and violence may lead to the radicalization of attitudes.

In addition to the family as the origin of radicalization, three other factors are often discussed as being relevant for developing extremist attitudes. First, Baier et al. (2006) emphasize the influence of schools and peers on the political socialization of young people. The fact that assaults with a far-right background are mostly carried out by groups also emphasizes the role of the peers. Second, the impact of gender is discussed together with the construct of hierarchical self-interest. Boys and men are more inclined to develop far-right attitudes as they are more vulnerable to dominance ideologies than girls and women. And third, school factors such as problems of performance in the classroom, lack of recognition, unsystematic and undemocratic teaching, and low performance standards can also contribute to the development of far-right attitudes (Sturzbecher, 2001).

Socialization models provide further explanations for right-wing extremism. According to Baier et al. (2006), socialization models ‘link both structural and individual causes from the point of view of a learning history or career’ (p. 292). The theory of social disintegration according to Anhut and Heitmeyer (2008) states that ‘the greater the experience of disintegration for subgroups of the majority society, the greater the integration problems of the minorities to be absorbed and the greater the tensions between the members of the different groups are to be expected’ (p. 143).

6.2 Borum’s Mindset Concept

The previous vision of individual protective factors directly leads to Borum’s mindset concept. In the process of radicalization into violent extremism (RVE), key turning points can trigger radicalization—or not.

Radicalization often starts with individuals who are frustrated with their lives, society, or foreign policy of their governments. A typical pattern is that these individuals meet other like-minded people, and together they go through a series of events and phases that ultimately can result in terrorism. However, only a few end up becoming terrorists. (Precht, 2007, p. 5)

Borum’s idea of a mindset that establishes a psychological climate which increases a person’s risk of embracing extremism works on the assumption that radicalization is multi-determined (Borum, 2012). His different worldviews of ‘authoritarianism, apocalypticism, dogmatism and fundamentalism’ can be connected to the research on epistemological beliefs (Krettenauer et al., 2014; Kuhn & Park, 2005; Mason & Scirica, 2006). Human beings develop epistemological understanding to coordinate the subjective and objective aspects of knowing (Kuhn et al., 2000). At the absolutist level two of epistemological understanding, critical thinking is unnecessary because the truth is readily discernible. The more individuals develop multiplist or evaluativist beliefs (levels three and four), the more they develop a tolerance towards other opinions: because everyone has a right to their own opinion, all opinions are equally right. Therefore, choices have to be made concerning one’s own values, for example. Rather than facts or opinions, knowledge at an evaluativist level of epistemological understanding consists of judgements which require support in a framework of alternatives, evidence, and arguments (Kuhn et al., 2000). Epistemological beliefs affect the ability to reflect on judgements as well as the reasoning process. This is relevant for the later argument to strengthen young people’s knowledge and their argumentation and reasoning skills as well as to support their development of epistemological beliefs towards level four.

In addition to the world views, Borum focuses on psychological vulnerabilities. In particular, the need for personal meaning and identity and the need for belonging create a weakness that may push individuals towards a radical ideology. Young people are looking for their place in society, and they want to participate in democracy and engage in their futures. This is a possible starting point for citizenship education. If students do not feel heard by politicians and have low trust in institutions, their activities can be pushed onto the wrong path. The perception of injustice in society and political decision-making can heat up moral emotions. ‘Moral emotions are those “linked to the interest or welfare either of society as a whole or at least of persons other than the judge or agent”’ (Haidt, 2003, p. 853, as cited in Borum, 2014, p. 293). The dimension of emotion is involved in the learning process. Weißeno and Grobshäuser report the results of different studies on the correlation between students’ self-concept, knowledge, political trust, and willingness to participate. The domain-specific self-concept as well as political interest show significant impacts on knowledge (Weißeno & Grobshäuser, 2019, p. 130). Self-efficacy is a significant predictor of political competence. A critical understanding of complex political decisions, different interest groups, and diverging values is necessary to counteract possible disappointment with the political system.

7 A Combined Theoretical Approach for Empirical Research on the Contribution of Citizenship Education to Preventing Right-Wing Extremism

As I outlined at the end of the previous section, my main purpose is to connect Borum’s idea of a mindset with two models of teaching, learning, and the acquisition of competence. The utilization of learning opportunities model (Helmke, 2010) consists of three main axes and is surrounded by a number of context variables such as school form and school community (e.g. housing conditions, unemployment rate in the community, etc.), which also influence success at school. On one side of the model are the teachers with their professional knowledge (content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and pedagogical knowledge), beliefs, and motivation as well as self-regulating skills. Teachers offer lessons based on their own professional competence. On the other side of the model are the students, each with their own personality, family and social backgrounds, motivations, and individual resources. Teachers and students come together at school in domain-specific lessons. Students can show learning activities and teachers can adapt their input to each student individually so that the outcome of the learning process is positive for the learner. If we integrate the requirements for citizenship education for democracy as an outcome into the opportunity-to-learn model, political competence is evident in these four dimensions: knowledge, reasoning skills, participation skills, and attitudes and motivations.

Political alienation and the feeling of political powerlessness, meaninglessness, and normlessness isolation (Solhaug, 2012, p. 5) are the opposites of political trust and a sense of being able to affect the political system. Therefore, citizenship education can foster beliefs and motivation among students. Solhaug’s study regarding political alienation and marginalization from mainstream society among migrant students in Norway shows the significance of identity and effective political citizenship in order to strengthen students’ self-efficacy and political trust in democracy and its institutions.

School teachers and their lessons cannot change the daily life circumstances with which their students are confronted. They can influence neither the formal education and job situation of their students’ parents nor their students’ housing conditions, their socioeconomic factors, and favourite peer groups. But according to Hattie (2009), professional teachers do have a significant effect on students’ learning outcomes, and teachers do matter in developing students’ political knowledge and civic skills via cognitive activation, feedback, problem-solving, and classroom management.

Figure 5.1 clearly shows the key points at which teachers and citizenship education lessons can start to foster individual protective factors. Both the four dimensions of political competence and the learning activities with adaptive feedback and group tasks can help to build a sense of social belonging and empathic behaviours. If empathy is a protective factor (Hosser & Beckurts, 2005) against racism by preventing antisocial or delinquent development, as Bäckström and Björklund (2007) proved with Swedish students between the ages of sixteen and twenty, then empathy could be important for getting students involved in social actions via role plays in which they start learning to argue from different perspectives. Role plays and simulated political debates ‘can prevent simplistic binary understandings (good/bad) and absolutist views, which are used by extremists, but they can be challenged by critical and relational thinking to make way for accepting alternative worldviews and “the other”’ (Ghosh et al., 2016, p. 11). However, Gronostay’s (2019) argumentation study indicates that students who were forced to argue a position that diverged from their personal view on a given controversy were less likely to take part in the discussion, but more likely to change their own personal views on the controversy. Three different settings (coherence, divergence, and indifference) were tested in fifty citizenship lessons in ten grade eight and grade nine classes (children aged between 13 and 15 years) in secondary schools in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, depending on students’ personal views on a controversial political issue. ‘An important finding with practical implications for teachers was, that the assignment of positions for in-class discussion significantly impacted students’ participation in the controversial discussions’ (Gronostay, 2019, p. 132). It has to be discussed if the divergent position (whereby the assigned and personal positions are incompatible) or the coherent assigned position would better foster a balanced and reflective judgement. The divergence condition requires perspective taking and attention to information that contradicts personal views, and thereby might reduce confirmation bias (according to Gronostay, 2019, p. 132).

Figure 5.1
Figure 5.1

The learning opportunities model combined with the model of political competence (based on concepts drawn from Helmke, 2010, and Detjen et al., 2012)

Political education has the potential to be a tool that prevents populism. It can cause cognitive irritation through objectification and controversy, prevent closed world views, and strengthen individual political maturity through political knowledge and democratic transfer of values while keeping in mind the diversity of the society. In the digital era, information and media literacy play a central role in the battle against fake news and hate crime on the internet. The conformation bias—the tendency to attend selectively to information that is consistent with pre-existing beliefs and to disregard contrary or disconfirming information—can be questioned in civic education lessons. ‘Resilience to extremist views must be built and students need to be equipped with the skills and knowledge to not just ignore, but argue against, extremist positions’ (Ghosh et al., 2016, p. 10). Borum’s mindset (2014) offers the dimensions of vulnerabilities and propensities which could be combined with the theoretical models of political competence and learning processes. This could be a helpful theoretical approach for identifying ‘where the subject is on a path towards or away from involvement with’ (Borum, 2014, p. 300) right-wing extremism or terrorism. Scientists of the didactics of citizenship education are asked to test empirically the effectiveness of civic and citizenship education for developing a protection mechanism against right-wing extremism. In the German compulsory education system, citizenship education can reach every young person. Research regarding the influence of civic education on right-wing attitudes, extremist beliefs, and democratic trust is needed together with research on the preventive dimension of knowledge and reasoning skills vis-à-vis fake news and extremist ideologies. Research on the professional competence of teachers is also needed and must be configured in connection with students’ learning processes and belief developments.

Abbreviations

AfD

Alternative für Deutschland [Alternative for Germany], right-wing party

BMI

Bundesministerium des Inneren, für Bau und Heimat [Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community]

BfV

Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz [Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution], the domestic intelligence service of the Federal Republic of Germany

BKA

Bundeskriminalamt [Federal Criminal Police Office]

CDU

Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands [Christian Democratic Union party of Germany]

FES-Mitte-Studien

Mitte-Studien der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung zur Erfassung rechtsextremer Einstellungen [Friedrich Ebert Foundation studies of the political centre to determine the prevalence of right-wing attitudes in Germany]

GMF-Studien

Mitte Studien zur Erfassung Gruppenbezogener Menschenfeindlichkeit [Studies of the political centre to capture the prevalence of group-focused hostility]

ICCS

International Civic and Citizenship Education Study

ICILS

International Computer and Information Literacy Study

IEA

International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement

NetzDG

Netzwerkdurchsuchungsgesetz [Network Enforcement Act]

OECD

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Pegida

Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes [Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the Occident]

PISA

Programme for International Student Assessment

SES

Socioeconomic status

SPD

Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands [Social Democratic Party of Germany]

UN

The United Nations

UNESCO

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

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The Challenge of Radicalization and Extremism

Integrating Research on Education and Citizenship in the Context of Migration

Series:  Moral Development and Citizenship Education, Volume: 19

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