Abstract:
Although the rise of the far-right and its associated populist rhetoric has been the subject of much scholarly work, there is an evident gap regarding the views of such far-right politicians specifically on education-related matters. We contend that this is possibly due to a lack of interdisciplinary work across political science and education disciplines that takes into account the strong nexus between politics and education. Yet, conducting such work is worthwhile particularly because it is these far-right politicians, who are elected using democratically legitimate methods, that are in positions of authority and hold decision-making power regarding educational policies.
In this paper, we seek to address this gap by analysing the discursive and affective practices of an under-researched far-right party in Europe: the National Popular Front (ELAM) in the Republic of Cyprus. Using an in-depth analysis of interviews with elected politicians combined with an analysis of their digital outputs (website mapping, videos, posts etc.), we investigate the discursive and affective rhetoric that ELAM uses to promote its political agenda regarding education. We focus on their main visions, concerns and solutions regarding a) history education (b) religious education (c) education and peaceful coexistence with the Turkish Cypriots (d) children with a migrant background and education (e) violent extremism, nationalism and education (f) gender equality and education. Our findings point towards an ambiguous and contradicting oscillation between more mainstream ideologies and those of the far-right – in line with far-right practices of other parties in Europe – and a hijacking of globally acceptable concepts such as human rights, democracy, critical thinking and student-centred learning which are then adapted into the local context of a conflict-affected society. We argue that this type of hijacking and co-optation of mainstream ideas reflects attempts to normalise and legitimise their positions so that they are no longer seen as politically incorrect or extreme. Finally, we discuss the political and educational implications of this analysis, especially regarding the future of educational policies in Europe that aspire to promote democratic citizenship and human rights.
Short bios:
Michalinos Zembylas is Professor of Educational Theory and Curriculum Studies at the Open University of Cyprus, Honorary Professor at Nelson Mandela University, South Africa, and Adjunct Professor at the University of South Australia. He has been awarded a Commonwealth of Learning (COL) Chair for 2023-2026. He has written extensively on emotion and affect in relation to social justice pedagogies, intercultural and peace education, human rights education and citizenship education. His recent books include: Affect and the rise of right-wing populism: Pedagogies for the renewal of democratic education, and Higher education hauntologies: Living with ghosts for a justice-to-come (co-edited with V. Bozalek, S. Motala and D. Hölscher). In 2016, he received the Distinguished Researcher Award in “Social Sciences and Humanities” from the Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation.
Eleni Christodoulou is a senior researcher at the Open University of Cyprus and a special scientist for teaching and research at the Department of Social and Political Sciences of the University of Cyprus. She completed an ESRC-funded PhD in Political Science at the University of Birmingham, UK. From 2016-2019 she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Georg Eckert Leibniz Institute for International Textbook Research in Germany. There she was the team leader of a project on the nexus between education and violent extremism, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. She has held visiting research fellowships at the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich and the University of Tuebingen in Germany, as well as at the University of New South Wales, Australia. Eleni has published interdisciplinary work on the politics of education, right-wing and Islamist violent extremism and terrorism, history textbooks and transitional justice, and on the securitisation of education in conflict-settings. Eleni has consulted or cooperated with international organisations such as UNESCO; EUROCLIO; Council of Europe and UNDP.
Time: Thursday, May 4th 2023, 3:00pm (Finland/Cyprus time, EEST)
Venue: On-site: TAU Virta Edu’s Café, Åkerlundinkatu 5, 33100, Tampere, Finland. Online: The Zoom Meeting link will be sent to registered participants closer to the date.
Registration: Please fill in the registration form via this link to get more information closer to date.