A Clash of (School) Culture: Student Extremism

Abstract Book of the 10th International Academic Conference on Teaching, Learning and Education

Year: 2026

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A Clash of (School) Culture: Student Extremism

Lorenzo Cherubini, Adelia Spytkowsky

ABSTRACT:

In the broader context of the colonial history and settler-political imperative in Canada, right-wing extremist groups take aim at racialized and minority peoples. Right-wing extremist discourse is intended to overly stigmatize individuals and groups by underscoring their inferiority using discriminatory language. It is not uncommon for extremist narratives to juxtapose racialized and minority peoples and worldviews in stark contrast to idealized nationalist images and traditions. Particular to this discussion are considerations of the distinct influence of right-wing extremist ideologies on youth. Youth have unrestricted entry into numerous right-wing extremist online communities that espouse ethnonationalist principles. These sentiments appeal to those youth that have emerging understandings of their national identity as unmistakably exclusive of racialized and minority peoples. The conceptual framework of this analysis includes a consideration of the allure of right-wing ideologies shared on social media platforms for school-aged youth in Canada and accounts for the right-wing extremist ideologies and sentiments that have permeated Canadian schools and classrooms. The analysis also considers the need for education programs to be designed for teachers to exercise their professional autonomy to address the specific needs and development of their students, in tandem with the same classroom and school cultures they have a substantial role in creating.

Keywords: Social Media; Teachers; Youth-Radicalization