Proceedings of The International Academic Conference on Teaching, Learning, and Education
Year: 2019
DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.33422/tleconf.2019.09.580
Encountering The “Politics of Fear”: Teacher Training for A Media Propaganda Education to Prevent Political Extremism, In The Context of DEMOKLEOS, Erasmus+ KA2- Project
Constantina Spiliotopoulou
ABSTRACT:
Under the weight of the “Politics of fear” pervading contemporary life, teachers are obliged to work in a difficult climate dominated by ideas and practices which directly affect human rights and democracy. Recruitment of young people by violent extremist networks throughout Western countries is constantly increasing. Along with this increase has come a constructive discussion about teachers’ training and programs that empower participants to respond to Media extremist Propaganda. Emphasis on prevention is the key. Despite the fact that online environments are now central to Political Propaganda, Media Political Education in schools is virtually non-existent. In the vast majority of EU Member States, there is no provision of formal teacher training in Media Literacy or Media Propaganda Education. The overall aim of the Erasmus+, KA2 project DEMOKLEOS The KLEOS of Democracy in European School, Rethinking Democratic Awareness and Collective Responsibility for a Whole Approach is to provide educators with the necessary tools, mainly through open training activities, aimed at facilitating the identification on-line of ‘political extremist’ motivated hate communication. A communication-based training concept has been worked out, for teachers of the Secondary Education and for their school students. Specific forms of Political Literacy education had been elaborated, which provide skills to analyse the media, but also enable critical idealism to be fostered. Moreover, one of the specific objectives of the project was to raise Democratic Awareness on issues such as political propaganda, indoctrination, and fake news found in the online environment and the influence of social media on politics and civil society.
Keywords: Teacher training, Media Propaganda Education, Political Extremism, Political literacy, Erasmus+ DEMOKLEOS.