Toolbox

Toolbox

You are a trainer, teacher or educator: in this toolbox you will find ways to develop tolerance and prevent violent radicalisations.

The resources have been developed by nine educational organisations across Europe on the basis of their experience. Here you will find case studies and resources aimed at increasing your knowledge and skills, and suggestions for activities in the classroom so that you can actively participate in long-term radicalisation prevention.

Selected sources will help you respond adequately when you discover a problem

Resources to develop knowledge and skills

As educators, we have a role to play to prevent and detect violent radicalisation. By understanding the processes underlying it, we will be able to improve our daily practices in order to promote tolerance and respect.

A reflection on identity and aspects of life that can promote radicalisation
A reflection on the teacher's own identity through five dimensions: corporeality, social network, work and accomplishments, material security, personal value.
⌚︎ 1h15
🏷︎ Awareness 🏷︎ Identity 🏷︎ Empathy 🏷︎ Self-perception 🏷︎ Self-reflection
Awareness about diversity in schools
Raise awareness and train towards diversity and non-discrimination in schools, using teachers' experiences with students.
⌚︎ 3h
🏷︎ Diversity 🏷︎ Multiculturalism 🏷︎ Prevention
Basic indicators of radicalisation
Examples of indicators to detect behaviours possibly reflecting a radicalisation process (not necessarily violent)
⌚︎ 20 min
🏷︎ Indicators 🏷︎ Breaking-off 🏷︎ Behaviour 🏷︎ Dissimulation 🏷︎ Duplicity
Counteracting conspiracy theory
Analysis of conspiracy rhetoric. Preparation for immediate reaction to conspiracy opinions formulated in an educational environment.
⌚︎ 3h
🏷︎ Conspiracy theory 🏷︎ Critical thinking 🏷︎ Media literacy 🏷︎ Empowerment
Developing a critical analysis against religious discriminations
Analysis and resources to dismantle myths and misconceptions that underlie many religiously-discriminating situations.
⌚︎ 2h
🏷︎ Discrimination 🏷︎ Media 🏷︎ Critical thinking 🏷︎ Religion
How to observe relationships at risk in order to prevent radicalisation
To develop skills and methods to prevent potential conflict situations that can lead to radicalisation through the identification of specific indicators
⌚︎ 4-8h
🏷︎ Indicators of radicalisation
Human rights education as a tool for change
How to use human rights education as a tool for creating a culture with an active focus on fighting intolerance and promoting human rights.
⌚︎ 6h
🏷︎ Human Rights Education 🏷︎ Xenophobia 🏷︎ Racism 🏷︎ Intolerance
Identifying, detecting and reflecting on signs of radicalisation
Raising awareness about signs of radicalisation identified in young people who joined extremism. Becoming familiar with causes of radicalisation as well as strategies used by extremists to attract young people.
⌚︎ 1h30
🏷︎ Causes 🏷︎ Detection 🏷︎ Signs 🏷︎ Intervention
Knowledge and management of emotions
Develop knowledge of emotions and socio-emotional competences to reduce violence
⌚︎ 3 X 1h30
🏷︎ Emotions 🏷︎ School violence 🏷︎ Emotional literacy 🏷︎ Non-violent emotional reactions 🏷︎ Management of emotions 🏷︎ Conflict
Round table with experts
Organising a round table on the topic of radicalisations
⌚︎ 3h
🏷︎ Migration 🏷︎ Returners 🏷︎ Social inclusion 🏷︎ Multicultural

Activities to implement with learners

Developing a climate of tolerance in which learners understand and accept differences is key to prevent radicalisation. A variety of learning activities to implement in the classroom are available. They aim at fighting intolerance and hate factors such as racism, antisemitism or xenophobia.

Cooperating with others: together we can go further
A teamwork activity focused on planning and evaluation, in which students have to reach a common goal through group work.
👥︎ Age 14-17
⌚︎ 1h30
🏷︎ Cooperation 🏷︎ Methodologies 🏷︎ Teamwork
Countering online harassment and hate speech
Discussion on the topic of hate speech; guidelines on how to react appropriately; role-play activity.
👥︎ Age 15-25
⌚︎ 3h
🏷︎ Hate speech 🏷︎ Online harassment
Dialogue space
Tracing reports of racism and terrorism in the news; establishing a space for dialogue; teaching students about cultural diversity.
👥︎ Age 14-17
⌚︎ 4-5 meetings during a month
🏷︎ Dialog 🏷︎ Interculture
Drawing for tolerance
Organise an art contest in school
👥︎ Age 14-17
⌚︎ 5-7h
🏷︎ Art 🏷︎ Contest 🏷︎ Acceptance 🏷︎ Awareness
Fake news
Familiarise students with criteria used to assess the credibility of news, help them distinguish between facts, information and opinions
👥︎ Age 15-25
⌚︎ 3h
🏷︎ Critical thinking 🏷︎ Fake 🏷︎ Media literacy 🏷︎ Credibility assessment 🏷︎ Information seeking 🏷︎ News
Forum theatre for tolerance
Students create a scenario for a play based on a potential conflict and try to resolve the conflict through the play.
👥︎ Age 12-25
⌚︎ 2 X 2h
🏷︎ Human Rights Education 🏷︎ Theatre workshop 🏷︎ Theatre of the oppressed 🏷︎ Art 🏷︎ Youth empowerement 🏷︎ Conflict
From love to hatred
Working with a short poem describing how hatred comes into existence and working out its meaning, specifically in terms of terrorism
👥︎ Age 14-25
⌚︎ 1h
🏷︎ Community integration 🏷︎ Emotions 🏷︎ Raising awareness 🏷︎ Detection 🏷︎ Violence
How do we think the other?
Identification of the main ideas associated with "otherness" and a debate on perceiving diversity as negative.
👥︎ Age 15-25
⌚︎ 2h
🏷︎ Otherness 🏷︎ Representations 🏷︎ Diversity 🏷︎ Pluralism
Indiscipline in schools
School indiscipline conceptualized in a national framework; suggested role-play activities simulating acts of indiscipline
👥︎ Age 14-25
⌚︎ 1h30
🏷︎ Indiscipline 🏷︎ Marginalisation 🏷︎ Prevention 🏷︎ Violent Behaviour 🏷︎ Exclusion
Information analysis protocol
Learners elaborate a protocol to follow so as not to be deceived by information from the web whatever the issuer: radio, television, traditional press, online press, social networks...
👥︎ Age 15-25
⌚︎ 3-4h
🏷︎ Information seeking 🏷︎ Youth empowerement 🏷︎ Critical thinking
Migrants should change their way of life if they want to fully integrate
Debate on whether migrants should change their way of life if they want to fully integrate in society. The students will exchange their sides in order to have a complete simulation of the migration experience.
👥︎ Age 15-25
⌚︎ 3h
🏷︎ Minorities 🏷︎ Human rights 🏷︎ Migrant
Pippi Longstocking as a migrant
Understanding otherness through literature
👥︎ Age 14-18
⌚︎ 1h30
🏷︎ Migration 🏷︎ Tolerance 🏷︎ Social inclusion 🏷︎ Multicultural 🏷︎ Multilingual 🏷︎ Teaching techniques
Press conference to reduce racism, antisemitism and xenophobia
Organising a school level press conference on fighting racism, antisemitism and xenophobia
👥︎ Age 15-18, parents
⌚︎ 1h
🏷︎ Migration 🏷︎ Tolerance 🏷︎ Social inclusion 🏷︎ Multicultural
Social network map
A visualization of the individual's social network can explicitly demonstrate a need for change. The density of the social network can be calculated to provide information about its functionality.
👥︎ Age 14-25
⌚︎ 1h
🏷︎ Social network 🏷︎ Integration 🏷︎ Reflection on environment
Tackling hate speech
Tackling hate speech through theory, research activity, analysis and creativity
👥︎ Age 15-25
⌚︎ 2h
🏷︎ Hate speech 🏷︎ Human rights 🏷︎ Solidarity 🏷︎ Respect 🏷︎ Media literacy 🏷︎ Critical thinking 🏷︎ Awareness
Tackling racism, antisemitism and xenophobia
Short presentation, discussion and problem tree activity on racism, antisemitism and xenophobia
👥︎ Age 14-25
⌚︎ 2h
🏷︎ Non-formal learning methodology 🏷︎ Racism 🏷︎ Human Rights Education 🏷︎ Active listening 🏷︎ Acceptance 🏷︎ Discrimination 🏷︎ Exclusion 🏷︎ Antisemitism 🏷︎ Xenophobia
The DNA Journey
Exchange about stereotypes to bring out latent prejudices and analysis of a short video to consider cultural differences
👥︎ Age 14-17
⌚︎ 2h
🏷︎ Prejudices 🏷︎ Stéréotypes 🏷︎ Critical thinking 🏷︎ Multicultural

Case studies to understand better radicalisation processes

What can we do when we face a risky situation? Several cases of non satisfactory situations in schools are analysed. They help us defining our role and planing our reaction.

A young woman teacher

A young woman teacher teaching English as a second language to a class (30) of young male students aged 18-19, from different cultural backgrounds and with no knowledge of the language and local culture, with a low level of English as a common language.

Teacher’s predicament as she…

🏷︎ Multicultural 🏷︎ Multilingual 🏷︎ Teaching techniques 🏷︎ Sexism 🏷︎ Sexual discrimination 🏷︎ Machismo
Bullying and discrimination

Tim is a young boy that is physically and psychologically abused by a group of male colleagues from his school. Tim suffers consecutive assaults, but he chooses to stay silent beacuse of the fear and anxiety that the situations incite in him. Apart from the support he receives from a…

🏷︎ Bullying 🏷︎ Discrimination 🏷︎ Physical and psychological violence
Counteracting scapegoating

A Roma student was transferred to a very good computer science high school with admission restriction policies based on students’ high achievements. He had a scholarship but his classmates haven't been told about it. The Roma newcomer did not know anybody and the other students did not…

🏷︎ Scapegoating 🏷︎ Isolation 🏷︎ Communication 🏷︎ Tolerance 🏷︎ Empathy
Cyber risks: you never know who is at the other end of the line

A new student came to a high school class with students from different cultural backgrounds. The class was well-organised and students knew each other. The newcomer did not know anybody. He was impulsive, violent in gestures and language; students reacted against him. After being informed about…

🏷︎ Isolation 🏷︎ Internet 🏷︎ Communication 🏷︎ Alternatives 🏷︎ Extracurricular activities
Gender education for teenagers in multicultural contexts

Abigáil is a 15-year-old Gypsy student, who attends the first level of basic vocational training. She goes to school only because of the legal obligation that exists until the age of 16. Despite being very intelligent and with an enormous interest in literature, she is very clear that when she…

🏷︎ Empowerment of women 🏷︎ Freedom of choice 🏷︎ Access to education 🏷︎ Intercultural Education 🏷︎ Gender discrimination 🏷︎ Opportunities
Homosexuality in the school context

One student, let's call him Joseph, is asked to leave the military boarding school that he attends because he showed he had feelings for one of his dormitory colleagues. A school employee saw what happened and reported it to the school management. Joseph was automatically excluded by his…

🏷︎ Homosexuality 🏷︎ Homophobia 🏷︎ Xenophobia 🏷︎ Discrimination 🏷︎ Preconceptions 🏷︎ Radicalisation
Inter-religious tensions in the classroom

This is a classroom of twenty students (aged 17-18) at a technical high school, who belong to the 'majority' group, i.e. they are Christian (practising and non-practising). Two new students arrive to the class from Syria and they are Muslim (Mariam and Rami - brother and sister). They are facing…

🏷︎ Acceptance 🏷︎ Active listening 🏷︎ Exclusion 🏷︎ Discrimination 🏷︎ Critical thinking
Involving families in the prevention of radicalisation

Luis is a 16-year-old student born in Madrid to a Spanish family of the middle-low class in which both parents work. She has sporadic jobs doing housework in different homes and he is a clerk in a company. Luis also has…

🏷︎ Family 🏷︎ Radicalisation 🏷︎ Self-esteem 🏷︎ Self-confidence 🏷︎ School failure
Learner infected by religious I.S. fundamentalism?

The trainer is worried that maybe one of the students has become a member of a radical religious community. The trainer heard that he is now frequenting a mosque which is alleged to host hatemongers, and the trainer has noticed minor changes in the student's behaviour. For example, he is…

🏷︎ Religious radicalisation 🏷︎ Detection
Peer mediation

Pablo and Ahmed are two students of a basic vocational training course at a school in Madrid. They live in different neighborhoods, they do not have groups of friends in common other than their schoolmates. They go to…

🏷︎ Conflict mediation 🏷︎ Empowerment 🏷︎ Involvement of learners
Relationships within a class group

An underage student of Moroccan origin is a student in a compulsory training course.

His family moved to Italy when he was a child, so he received his…

🏷︎ Relationship 🏷︎ Emotional aspects 🏷︎ Pre-conceptions 🏷︎ Prejudices 🏷︎ Isolation 🏷︎ Exclusion
Scapegoating minority background students

Repeated thefts in a school are blamed on minority background students.

🏷︎ Community integration 🏷︎ Community mediation 🏷︎ Social inclusion 🏷︎ Social cohesion 🏷︎ Integration of minority
Social media conspiracy theories

The trainer noticed an increasingly intolerant attitude in a participant of an adult basic education class. There are 6 people of different nationalities in the class (3 Austrians, 1 Tunisian, 2 Moroccans). The young Austrian man has displayed problematic behaviour before, but recently his…

🏷︎ Conspiracy 🏷︎ Conspiration 🏷︎ Racism 🏷︎ Far right wing 🏷︎ Far left wing
Student reports of racism

Without being asked, a student reports during a school class (German/communication/society) about how he had been verbally attacked several times on the streets of his town in a racist way, and about how traumatized he is about this. At the moment when the attacks happened, he found himself…

🏷︎ Discrimination 🏷︎ Racism 🏷︎ Human rights 🏷︎ Refugees
Systematic marginalisation of refugee students in Cyprus

Adnan and Sayid are two young Syrian refugee students. They came to Cyprus with their families and started attending a public school, with predominantly Greek Cypriot students.

The two boys can't speak the language very well and the other students do not talk with them. In the class they…

🏷︎ Human Rights Education 🏷︎ Discrimination 🏷︎ Integration of minority 🏷︎ Critical thinking 🏷︎ Racism 🏷︎ Behaviour 🏷︎ Conflict 🏷︎ Acceptance 🏷︎ Bullying
Tackling violent behaviour towards students of minority backgrounds

During the lesson of physical education, immediately after a basketball game and whilst still on the court, members of one of the teams physically attack a girl from the opposing team after she performs very well and her performance leads to the winning of her team. She is a student of African…

🏷︎ Intercultural Education 🏷︎ Human Rights Education 🏷︎ Non-violence 🏷︎ Conflict 🏷︎ Bullying 🏷︎ Community mediation 🏷︎ Acceptance 🏷︎ Raising awareness
Teaching methods during Ramadan

We are in the Ramadan period that coincides with the final month of a training course for adult prisoners.

The practising Muslim students are struggling to follow lessons and in particular group exercises, blaming fatigue caused by…

🏷︎ Religion 🏷︎ Teaching organization 🏷︎ Individual identification 🏷︎ Prison
The Portuguese bride of jihad

Ângela, 19, is a Portuguese descending from a family of non-practising catholics, living in the Netherlands. She was the type of girl who used to smoke, enjoyed having fun, occasionally drank… in a general way, she was a very sociable girl.

In a short time, she began…

🏷︎ Religious radicalisation 🏷︎ Jihadism 🏷︎ Fundamentalism 🏷︎ Prevention
Three stories

During a break between classes a group of students was standing outside, talking. The conversation got louder and louder, until it finally escalated to shouting. There was swearing, insults and other inappropriate words (including several stereotypes) targeted against three immigrant students,…

🏷︎ Migration 🏷︎ Tolerance 🏷︎ Social inclusion 🏷︎ Xenophobia 🏷︎ Verbal assault 🏷︎ Communication