Echoes of Terror(ism)

Our paper examines the latest frontier of the “War on Terror,” countering violent extremism (CVE), non-coercive approaches that aim to prevent “radicalization” that may lead to “violent extremism” or terrorism. We look at the recent implementation of CVE in Québec’s education sector. Based on an analysis of key policy documents and interviews with CVE practitioners, we find that: (1) teachers are responsibilized to safeguard society from the risk of terrorism through being expected to “know the signs” of radicalization and to build “resilience,” (2) students are responsibilized as agents who can influence their peers against violent extremist messaging and toward “prosocial” behaviour, and (3) elements of school curriculum are responsibilized, especially social studies education, to provide students with “critical thinking” skills thought to be lacking among those at risk of radicalization. We highlight the inherent contradictions in CVE, which, in Québec, claims to foster pluralism and inclusivity to combat Islamophobia, but as a modality of the “War on Terror” also targets and stigmatizes Muslim communities. Critical discussion of CVE’s social implications are needed to initiate critical dialogue in Canada over the impact of CVE in social services provision and the risk of securitizing the education sector in Québec.

Analysis of Orientalist Discourse in an Alberta Social Studies Text Resource

The aim of this paper is to explore how the Alberta Social Studies 30-1 textbook, Perspectives on Ideology (Fielding et al., 2009) can contribute to orientalist discourse in its presentation of Islam, especially with respect to terrorism, extremism, and illiberalism—three concepts that appear in the Alberta Social Studies Program of Study. Using a content and discourse analysis, the study found three central findings that contributed to an orientalist framing of Islam: a lack of nuanced discussion of Islam; positioning Islam as a source of terrorism; and a lack of acknowledgement of wrongdoing following injustices perpetrated towards Muslims in Canada. This study concludes by offering ways in which social studies curricular support materials may interrogate to disrupt orientalist discourse, and challenges social studies educators to critically examine the limitations of some of the most common resource materials at their disposal.

Mark Bingham

In this article, the author recounts some of the events that occurred on September 11, 2001, when four doomed airlines crashed after being hijacked by 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists, resulting in the deaths of 2,977 people in New York, New York, at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and on an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. It is at this latter location, where United Flight 93 crashed killing everyone onboard, including 31-year-old Mark Bingham, an openly gay businessman and member of a small group of people who, it is believed, wrested control from the hijackers and brought the plane down. In the years post-September 11, Bingham has become known as a modern-day hero by the various queer communities, while also garnering a high level of notoriety among many mainstream people as well. The author maintains, however, that Bingham’s hero status simultaneously contributes to the dismissal and erasure of countless other queer people, primarily Black, Brown, and transgender, who have also performed heroic acts throughout modern U.S. history. Without diminishing the actions Bingham and the others took on board United Flight 93, the author questions why this particular gay man is remembered, while countless other queer/trans people of color remain largely unknown.

“Is Your Dad a Towelhead?"

Using the author’s personal experiences as a Brown woman living in the United States after September 11, this paper uses post-9/11 violence enacted against Brown citizens to consider the nuances of necropolitics. Specifically, this paper argues that too often everyday acts of violence, such as gaslighting, are central mechanisms of necropolitical control. Frequently, these normalized aggressions make relegating people to the status of the living dead possible. Finally, this paper argues that necropolitics emerges from intra-actions, often causing the ontoepistemological death for communities of color in general and, in this case, Brown people in a physically and psychologically violent post-9/11 United States.

Echoes of Terrorism in Today’s U.S. Classrooms

Nearly 20 years after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York, Washington D.C., and Shanksville, PA there is a yearly ritual in a majority of US Schools. On the anniversary each year, teachers and students across the US learn about the attacks and memorialize the events. In many classrooms this is done through witnessing the events much like in 2001 for most of the world – through watching news or documentary footage of the events. In this article I use Hall’s concepts of encoding and decoding as well and socio-cultural theories to read these media representations both in the context of 2001 and again 20 years later to understand how these events are placed into broader narratives of US history. Many teachers today focus on the shock and horror of the events, an approach I argue is problematic as the affective response is emphasized over the historical context and consequences. Instead of using these media to foster collective memory, they could instead be viewed as primary sources to inquire into the historical context of the events and response in the form of the Global War on Terror. This approach would allow students to better understand the events leading to the attacks and the impact that the resulting responses by the US and other Western nations have had on their lives and the lives of others around the globe (e.g., Islamaphobia). After 20 years of conflict after these attacks it is time to both remember the victims of 9/11 as well as understand why it happened and the global toll of the response.

9/11 and Social Studies Education

In this article, the author shares a personal reflection of his military and educational experiences in the aftermath of 9/11. He describes his concerns about the ongoing “War on Terror” and the disengaged militarism of the United States and how this has shaped his approach in the classroom. Expanding on his personal experiences, he calls for social studies educators to employ critical pedagogy and peace education to help students develop as thoughtfully and critically engaged citizens who are capable of creating a more peaceful world.

Supporting Muslim Students Through Culturally Relevant, Responsive, and Sustaining Pedagogies

In this article, I discuss a conceptual framework for supporting Muslim students using Culturally Relevant, Responsive, and Sustaining Pedagogies informed by a Collaborative Inquiry approach. The impact of 9/11 and its consequences on Muslim students’ temporal and social contexts calls for a critical stance that questions teachers’ assumptions regarding Muslim students. I examine Critical Pedagogy as the theoretical underpinnings for employing Culturally Relevant, Responsive, and Sustaining Pedagogies with the intent of underscoring the significance of incorporating these pedagogies to build upon teachers’ capacities in honouring the voices of their Muslim students and fostering spaces for these voices to speak up. I explore how teachers can engage in Culturally Relevant, Responsive, and Sustaining Pedagogies through Collaborative Inquiry to meet the needs of Muslim students in ways that acknowledges their narratives and support them in navigating their social and academic environments.

Refugee Youth Resettlement

This article traces the evolution of the concepts of radicalization and deradicalization, specifically as they pertain to the social category of youth. It aims to locate and understand the concept of ‘resiliency’ as a deradicalization method and map out resiliency agendas in relation to the settlement of refugee youth. This article sets out to understand the relationship between deradicalization narratives and refugee youth resettlement programs within a broader historical and contemporary socio-political context.

Guest Editors’ Introduction to the Special Issue

As the twentieth anniversary of 9/11 approaches, we contemplate and reflect on the current social/political imagination of terror(ism) and U.S./Canadian patriotism. For educators seeking to unpack 9/11 and its reverberations, it is important to highlight Islamophobic and anti-Muslim racism, discrimination, prejudice, and violence, as well as to consider Muslim students’ lived experiences. (Re)thinking about whose voices are included (or not) within the nexus of sociopolitical power is an important step toward justice and then rapprochement within and beyond the classroom. We consider this assemblage of articles to be a distinctly communal effort that responds to and attempts to disrupt the (perpetual) echoes of terror(ism) which became amplified by/through the events of 9/11.