TERRA II

In a society that is becoming increasingly multicultural, the development of citizenship skills and an appreciation for others are vital. The TERRA II project team at UCR developed the UCARE curriculum for high school students to increase their social and citizenship competences and at the same time to prevent processes of radicalization by providing young people an alternative skill set to violent behaviors. It is a unique intervention, as it aims to tackle radicalization at its source without singling out or stigmatizing individuals at risk. The program provides teachers of secondary schools with the opportunity to teach citizenship skills, which often fall outside the regular curriculum and counteracts the threat of political or religious radicalization in European societies.

The intervention has a solid theoretical and empirical foundation. UCR instructors Dr. Marcin Sklad and Dr. Eri Park have developed this innovative curriculum using a framework of citizenship education drawing on many established theories and empirical findings from the discipline of Social Psychology. This curriculum provides school teachers with material, which they can implement in their classes. These materials are designed to foster empowerment, to stimulate empathy and an understanding of different perspectives and world views and to increase citizenship competences, which would ultimately delegitimize intergroup violence and contribute to a peaceful coexistence with others. This project is also in line with the core objective of UCR education, which is stimulating critical global citizenship. Also in accordance with the spirit of the ‘Going Glocal’ program carried out at UCR, the TERRA II project provides an opportunity for university college students to gain pedagogical experience whilst implementing the pilot interventions in secondary schools which participate in the project, strengthening the link between academic and secondary education in the region.

Today, seventy years after the end of the Second World War, extremism and radicalization of various sorts are rapidly becoming a serious problem in European countries. How is it possible that this is happening? Seeds of radical ideologies must fall on a fertile ground to bear their fruits. The extremist groups’ rhetoric is particularly attractive to those who experience an identity crisis and/or have a sense of injustice and resentment towards certain social groups, the establishment or their country.

Current targeted prevention efforts aimed at individuals that have radicalized or are identified as being at high risk to radicalize have many possible negative consequences: they can stigmatize minority groups and ‘individuals under suspicion’; they support negative stereotypes; they can produce martyrs and heroes of the radical movements; they may radicalize other members of the targeted group, giving them the impression that the state is against them; they stimulate polarization and division of the society, which generates xenophobia and extremism among majority members. Most importantly, targeted programs do not address the social-psychological origins of radicalization but only its outcomes and symptoms.

Therefore, the cycle of radicalization must be broken at its source by:

• Creating a society which allows young individuals to thrive and to construe a positive identity within this society without resorting to extremist ideology irrespectively if they come from a religious and/or ethnic majority or minority
• Breaking ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ divisions, which give birth to intergroup conflict
• Empowering young people (including members of under-privileged groups) by providing them with practical knowledge on democratic means of defending and exercising their rights. These means can form a feasible alternative to violence
• Promoting democracy and providing alternatives to extremist ideology
• Stimulating critical thinking, to make individuals resilient to populist rhetoric of extremists

In this context, we decided to develop a curriculum aimed at preventing radicalization through stimulating (global) citizenship competency and relevant social and emotional skills. A curriculum which is suitable and beneficial for all young individuals, regardless of the type of violent ideology that may be attractive to them or whether or not they are at risk of radicalizing. Thus the curriculum can be seen both as a primary prevention program as well as a civic competence program. Since young adults are the ones most vulnerable to radicalization and extremism, we chose a youth-oriented approach in order to reach them before they radicalize. The outcome is unique, since the intervention is school-based, targeting the general population of secondary school students.

Goals

For reaching the goal of the curriculum, which is preventing radicalization and violent extremism, the following teaching aims are set:

• To overcome the ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ construction through decategorization and allowing participation in a pluralist discourse
• To take the perspective of the ‘other’; to foster empathy and delegitimize propaganda of violence
• To provide socially acceptable alternatives to violence promoted by extremist groups
• To enhance knowledge, awareness and critical thinking skills, in order to make young adolescents resilient to potential recruitment by extremist groups which promote violence and terrorism and to make them challenge the propaganda of these groups
• To increase emotional control and self-reflection skills
• To gain a sense of political self-efficacy and empowerment
• To provide individuals with positive identities
• To promote European Union values

Development of the curriculum and the teaching material

In order to contribute to social change in democratic societies, and to prevent processes of radicalization at an early stage, the educational implications of social psychological processes of the self-other construction, issues of empathy and taking the perspective of the other, stereotypes, prejudice, small group influence and intergroup relations were analyzed. The insights acquired from this inquiry were brought together with scholarly work on citizenship education, the notion of empowerment and socio-emotional learning in order to create the lesson materials.

The initial individual lesson plans for secondary schools were produced by UCR researchers, in collaboration with partner organizations and students. All lessons aim at preventing radicalization and this was done by addressing various subjects ranging from critical thinking training to decategorization. The lesson materials underwent pilot implementations, evaluations and improvement cycles for two years.

The trainers conducting the classes have evaluated the materials and lessons. In addition, since the lessons were developed for and piloted in secondary schools, educational professionals from these schools have also provided input regarding the development of teaching and the construction of lesson plans. Next to this, standardized interviews were carried out among participating youth for the purpose of quantitative evaluations of the curriculum.

During the second year, a coherent manualized curriculum consisting of seven workshops, amalgamating the content of the unique lessons, was developed and piloted in the schools. This curriculum has been piloted and evaluated in the similar manner as single lessons. In addition, a pre-test post-test quantitative study has been carried out in order to establish potential effectiveness of the curriculum. Eventually, the instructor’s manual for the curriculum and auxiliary lesson material have been publicly released.

Om deze informatie in het Nederlands te lezen, klikt u op UCARE Curriculum Nederlands.
To download the UCARE trainer handbooks section, please click on the Download box.

Universal Curriculum against Radicalization in Europe (UCARE)

UCARE is a civic and social competences curriculum for adolescents.  It provides educational tools to foster citizenship and social skills in high-school students, with the aim of preventing processes of radicalization. The curriculum consists of seven consecutive workshops that can be fitted within regular classes and can be delivered by a teacher or an external trainer. The workshops can be extended to more lessons if needed. The step-by-step trainer manual and additional lesson materials make preparations easy. Delivering the workshops/lessons of the curriculum does not require specialist expertise in psychology, although basic teachers training and the ability to guide class discussions are helpful. By design, the curriculum also does not require knowledge of the issue of radicalization. Trainers are not required to deal with controversial political or religious issues in the class any more than in an average interactive class. Competences addressed in the curriculum are of every-day relevance for students, and are addressed in a way that makes their personal usefulness for individuals instantly clear. The pilot implementations confirmed that the workshops are positively received by students, and that students find them personally useful. From the perspective of a student the curriculum is primarily a training in useful social competences. Nevertheless, the competences honed by the curriculum were carefully selected to form a basis for resilience against factors leading towards radicalization. The goals of the curriculum match the goals of citizenship education set by the Dutch government.

The electronic version of the curriculum manual is available from this website in English, Dutch and Spanish.

If you are considering implementing the curriculum please contact us, we can provide help with setting up implementation and provide materials for evaluation. It is also possible to arrange training for the teachers/trainers.

On this website you can also find materials for individual independent lessons for schools which would like to implement these within subject classes or to extend the basic UCARE curriculum. More information can be found in the Single Lesson Materials section.

Titles of workshops:

1. Who Are We?
2. You’re in Control
3. How to Resist Pressure
4. Standing in Someone Else’s Shoes
5. Thinking Things Through
6. Changing the World I
7. Changing the World II

​Next to the UCARE curriculum manual, we can provide materials for individual independent lessons for schools which would like to implement these within subject classes or to extend the basic UCARE curriculum. There are 17 lesson plans available, which cover the following topics and competences:

• Group Pressure
• Social Exclusion
• Assertiveness
• Conflict Resolution
• Critical Thinking
• Critical Open Mindedness
• Mindfulness
• Multiple Identities
• Perspective Taking
• Political Empowerment
• Positive Identity
• Stereotypes and prejudice
• Political self-efficacy

 Download

Educating for Safe and Democratic Societies:

Auxiliary Lesson Material

• Auxiliary Lesson Material

The UCARE curriculum was developed at University College Roosevelt as part of the TERRA II project.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication (communication) reflects the views of the authors only, and the European Commission cannot be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

All rights reserved.

The curriculum is developed at UCR within the framework of the international TERRA II project: a European network for the prevention of radicalization and recruitment to terrorism subsidized by the European Commission, HOME/2013/ISEC/AG/RAD-4000005270.

During TERRA I, a literature review on psycho-social factors leading to violent radicalization was conducted and, as a result of this, a matrix to identify the best preventive practices at each stage of radicalization has been developed, based on the Staircase to Terrorism Model (Moghaddam, 2005). Initial research showed that it is possible to identify key figures and influencing factors at each point during the process of radicalization. From this literature, certain trends became apparent, allowing specific guidelines for key figures who may be able to positively influence a vulnerable individual or community. This makes it possible to connect and tune interventions according to the context and key figures at each stage. This realization enables us to bridge the gap between the state of the art of academic research in this field and the best practices of front line workers working with the target group – susceptible individuals and vulnerable communities. On the basis of these findings, the TERRA I project created tools and materials to complement and support existing best practices: a manual for policy makers, journalists, teachers, religious leaders, and law enforcement personnel and educational material for schools, including video materials and testimonials from victims of terrorism and former terrorists. These tools were designed to support prevention and to help people to disengage from activity with violent radical groups. They were utilized during the TERRA II program.

The Terra II project had the following objectives:

1. Supporting front line workers who come into daily contact with groups who have been identified as being vulnerable to radicalization through training of trainers and training sessions.
2. Supporting victims of terrorism and former radicals by involving them as trainers in the training program for de-radicalization. Their testimonials were used as teaching materials and their input was used in all of the materials that this program produced.
3. Integrating the state of the art knowledge on radicalization and de-radicalization in a Global/European Citi-zenship Program.
4. Delivering practical policy advice to European governments, informed by state of the art research and ex-pert consensus, in order to assist them in meeting the challenges that Europe faces. Policy advice related to evolving and diverse forms of terrorism was based upon the Staircase to Terrorism Model used by TER-RA I and specifically designed to support decisions leading to effective interventions.

In order to achieve these objectives, we have undertaken the following activities:

1. We developed and implemented a civic education program specifically tailored to address radicalization.
2. We implemented tools designed to help people who work with susceptible individuals and vulnerable com-munities on a daily basis, such as teachers, law enforcement personnel, religious leaders, community leaders, journalists, policy makers, and social and youth workers. These tools were developed during TERRA I. They were implemented during the training of trainers in three countries: the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Spain.
3. We invited policy makers from the European Union who attended an event in Brussels, and received tailor-made, evidence based policy advice. Beneficiaries include European citizens from across the Union.

Partners in the project:

• Impact, the Netherlands, is the National Knowledge and Advice Centre for Psychosocial Care concerning critical incidents. Impact was the coordinating partner for TERRA I, and they have also coordinated TERRA II. Impact has translated state of the art scientific knowledge on radicalization into practical tools and im-plemented them in TERRA II.
• AAV-11M, Spain, the Association for Aid to the Victims of the 11th March stimulates transnational coopera-tion between associations of victims of terrorism and enhances the representation of victims’ interests at the European level. Target groups and beneficiaries are victims, (potential) terrorists, EU member states and frontline workers in the field of rehabilitation, teaching, policing and welfare. AAV-11M is the founding mother of the European Network of Victims of Terrorism.
• Quiliam Foundation, the United Kingdom, is the world’s first counter-extremism think tank set up to address the unique challenges of citizenship, identity, and belonging in a globalized world. Quilliam stands for reli-gious freedom, equality, human rights and democracy.

Contact

For any questions regarding the TERRA II project and the UCARE curriculum, you can contact Dr. Marcin Sklad at m.sklad@ucr.nl or 0118 – 655 500.

Visiting Address: Lange Noordstraat 1, 4331 CB Middelburg, The Netherlands

Mailing Address: P.O. Box 94, 4330 AB Middelburg, The Netherlands

Om het UCARE trainer handbook te downloaden, klikt u op de Download box.
Universal Curriculum against Radicalization in Europe (UCARE)

UCARE is een lesprogramma over burgerschaps- en sociale vaardigheden voor adolescenten. Het levert onderwijskundige hulpmiddelen om burgerschap en sociale vaardigheden te bevorderen bij middelbare scholieren, met het doel processen van radicalisering te voorkomen. Het lesprogramma bestaat uit zeven opeenvolgende workshops die in reguliere lessen plaats kunnen vinden en die geleid kunnen worden door een leraar of een externe trainer. De workshops kunnen indien nodig uitgebreid worden naar meerdere lessen. De stap-voor-staphandleiding en de aanvullende materialen maken voorbereidingen eenvoudig. Het geven van de workshops/lessen vereist geen deskundigheid in psychologie, maar basisscholing in onderwijskunde en het vermogen om klasdiscussies te leiden komen wel van pas. Ook vereist het lesprogramma per definitie geen kennis van het onderwerp radicalisering. Trainers hoeven niet meer controversiële politieke of religieuze onderwerpen in de lessen te behandelen dan het geval is in een doorsnee interactieve les. Vaardigheden die behandeld worden in het lesprogramma hebben betekenis voor de leerlingen in hun dagelijkse leven, en worden op een manier behandeld die de persoonlijke waarde direct duidelijk maakt. De pilot implementatie heeft bevestigd dat de workshops positief ontvangen worden door de leerlingen, en dat de leerlingen ze persoonlijk nuttig vinden. Vanuit het perspectief van een leerling is het lesprogramma voornamelijk een training in bruikbare sociale vaardigheden. Evengoed zijn de vaardigheden die in dit lesprogramma worden aangescherpt zorgvuldig geselecteerd om een basis voor weerstand tegen factoren die naar radicalisering leiden te vormen. De doelen van het lesprogramma komen overeen met de doelen van burgerschapsvorming bepaald door de Nederlandse regering.

De digitale versie van het lesprogramma is beschikbaar op deze website in het Engels, Nederlands en Spaans.

Als u overweegt het lesprogramma toe te passen, neem dan contact met ons op. Wij kunnen hulp met het toepassen verlenen en materialen voor evaluatie leveren. Het is ook mogelijk om training voor de docenten/trainers te regelen.

Op deze website kunt u ook materialen vinden voor losse, op zichzelf staande lessen voor scholen die deze zouden willen toepassen in schoolvakken of gebruiken om het UCARE-lesprogramma uit te breiden. Meer informatie is beschikbaar in de Single Lesson Materials sectie.

Titels van workshops in het UCARE-lesprogramma:

1. Wie zijn we?
2. Jij hebt de controle
3. Weerstand bieden aan druk
4. In andermans schoenen staan
5. Goed nadenken over dingen
6. Strijden voor de goede zaak
7. Tijd voor verandering

UCR

• Dr. Marcin Sklad, project leader, UCR
• Dr. Eri Park, researcher, UCR
• Vicki Haverkate, school coordinator, UCR
• Iris van Venrooij, research assistant
• Abigail Pickard, research assistant
• Jantine Wignand, research assistant
• Anh Tran, research assistant

Secondary Schools participating in the program

• Christelijke Scholengemeenschap Walcheren der Perre
• Christelijke Scholengemeenschap Walcheren Toorop
• Nehalennia Stedelijke Scholengemeenschap
• Penta College – Jacob van Liesveldt
• Christelijke Scholengemeenschap Ostrea Lyceum
• Pontes Scholengemeenschap
• Scalda (MBO)​
• Scheldemond College

Educating for Safe and Democratic Societies: The Instructor’s Handbook for the Civic and Social Competences Curriculum for Adolescents UCARE.

• English version download
• Spanish version download
• Dutch version download

The UCARE curriculum was developed at University College Roosevelt as part of the TERRA II project.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication (communication) reflects the views of the authors only, and the European Commission cannot be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

All rights reserved.