Teachers in Romanian Secondary Schools: Challenges and Responses in Preventing Polarization and Extremism

This article discusses the main findings on the role of teachers and schools in preventing polarisation and extremism collected during the research undertaken in Romania within the framework of the H2020 project “PARTICIPATION”. The article analyses primary data collected through surveys, focus groups and interviews with primary and secondary school teachers on teaching complex issues in schools. It correlates the findings with research on the role of formal education in preventing polarisation and radicalisation. Specifically, it looks at the challenges faced by teachers when encountering contentious issues in classroom or school discussions and the ideation of their roles in these circumstances. The article concludes that, although there is an awareness of the role of teachers and the school environment in helping youth make sense of social and political issues which have competing and often sensitive interpretations and trigger fierce public debate, conceptions of the available resources and affordances of schools in these situations are limited and hindered by the system of formal education. Furthermore, interpretations of the needs of youth are systemically different between students and teachers. This leads to a decreased role of the traditional education system in responding to dynamics of polarisation and/or extremism among youth. Overall, it also weakens the role of formal education and schools’ role in preventing polarisation and extremism.