In an update of his 2017 talk, Prof. Peter O'Connor explores the complexities of terrorism from an educator's perspective. From the online version of Auckland University's Raising the Bar.

Education expert Peter O'Connor explores the intricacies of terrorism in an updated version of his 2017 talk What Drives Terrorism?

He argues that critical empathy is essential to understanding other people, and reducing the alienation and exclusion which can result in individuals being radicalised.

How can this begin in primary school? With the story of The Billy Goats Gruff.

Listen to Professor Peter O'Connor

(From Raising the Bar - Home edition 2021)

https://youtu.be/wMmvwBtniz0

Edited highlights from the discussion:

We live in constant crisis. In amongst that what we have found is people offering cheap and easy answers. The kinds of things which lure people into finding the scapegoat, finding the other to blame for their lack of ability to deal with post-normal times. Times of contradiction, of complexity, of seemingly never-ending crisis.

But, you know, we have been here before. I think back to that period after the Second World War when democracies had taken on the evils of Nazism. They were confronting the dehumanising ideologies of Stalinism.

And what we understood in the Western Hemisphere was that progressive policies were one way to protect democracy, one answer to those radicalising and dehumanising ideologies.

We worked really hard to diminish wealth inequality so that people wouldn't be attracted to those ways of thinking. And so we had progressive tax systems, which actually put the burden on the wealthy. We understood that having a stake in democracy, which was centred around homeownership for many, was important. We worked against the idea of intergenerational cultures of despair.

Now, in post-normal times, we find a willingness to blame others for where we have ended up. The displaced, the refugees of this world who are the victims of terrorism, are so casually labelled as terrorist threats to democracy when, in fact, they are the victims of it.

People of colour, in particular, have suffered under the burden of systemic racism and increasingly are threatened by the rise of white supremacy across the world, because it finds its home in post-normal times.

The educational theorist John Dewey understood that the kind of education that was needed in schools to address these issues, needed to have at its heart, the arts.

The arts in particular have a role in changing the world to be a more just, fair, and equitable place.

I'd like to give an example of what that might look like in a school.

I've been teaching about terrorism coming up for 20 years…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details