Racist, Islamophobic violence terrorised citizens in around 27 UK locations during the race riots of August 2024. Reports of well-known far-right figures encouraging involvement, coupled with mainstream politicians framing the behaviour as ‘legitimate grievances’ or ‘pro-British protests’, significantly compounded the trauma faced by many (Muslim Census, 2024). In this blog post I report on a school-based project that seeks to reduce young people’s vulnerability to divisive rhetoric.

The narrative of a ‘post-racial society’ grounded in ‘British values’, that had long been voiced by the media and politicians (but recognised by many as false), was exposed as being no more than a facade. However, any acknowledgement of this faded as quickly as the media coverage of the violence.

‘The narrative of a “post-racial society” grounded in “British values”, that had long been voiced by the media and politicians, was exposed as being no more than a facade.’

Many schools, reflecting the attitudes of wider society, were happy to simply avoid opening up uncomfortable conversations when the new term resumed. The riots themselves and this failure to adequately address them, raise significant safeguarding concerns for schools, as data show a significant number of teenagers, and younger children, were directly involved in the violence (YEF, 2024). This should initiate much soul-searching and raise concerns for all educators as all these young people are in, or recently passed through, our care.

It is essential for young people to engage in meaningful ways with those from other communities. The ‘Schools Linking’ programme is suggested as one way to meet this need. This programme partners classes from different schools across ‘perceived lines of difference’, including ethnicity, faith, socioeconomic backgrounds and urban or rural locations. It is designed by the The Linking Network, which has been part of the national debate around community cohesion for more than 20 years, drawing on research around school homogeneity or ‘patterns of ethnic school segregation’ (see Mitchell, n.d.).

Schools Linking supports young people to explore concepts of identity, diversity, community and justice, by asking:

• Who am I?
• Who are we?
• Where do we live?
• How do we all live well together?

Schools Linking provides opportunities for meaningful positive social contact. It draws on research which shows that merely bringing together children from different backgrounds is not enough to generate meaningful interactions (Cameron et al., 2006). Schools Linking puts into practice the conditions that are deemed to be essential, according to the research, for improvements in relations between children who are from different groups – that is, equal status of the groups, support from authority figures, co-operative activities and a common goal. These are embedded into the programme’s activities, building meaningful connections across lines of difference to reduce prejudice and challenge stereotypes.

Utilising different types of contact, the programme builds empathy, critical thinking and a sense of belonging or ‘felt understanding’ (see Livingstone, 2023) while enhancing young people’s ‘confidence in contact’ for future similar interactions.

Teacher training sessions, supporting staff to initiate challenging conversations and develop their own racial and cultural literacy, are a critical part of the programme especially where the majority of staff and pupils are from White British backgrounds. The programme addresses much of the spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) and personal development requirements and enhances pupils’ racial, faith and cultural literacy.

The programme can be used in many ways; most commonly it links young people in different schools but it can also connect students from within the same school. Even within diverse school communities there can be a tendency for friendship groups to be fairly monocultural; as well illustrated by Beverly Daniel Tatum in her 1997 book, Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?

Evaluations of Schools Linking show it validates individual identities, raises the importance of belonging and centres the value of diversity; offering a clear counter-narrative to the often ‘pathologised’ idea of diversity as inherently divisive. Schools are encouraged to go beyond simply ‘doing diversity’ and take steps to embed their interventions in order to transform the curriculum for longer-term impact (Turner & Cameron, 2016). Such hope-generating interventions can be impactful not only on the school experience of the young people involved but also on the way they interact within wider society now and in the future.

References

Cameron, L., Rutland, A., Brown, R., & Douch, R. (2006). Changing children’s intergroup attitudes toward refugees: Testing different models of extended contact. Child Development, 77(5), 1208–2019. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2006.00929.x

Mitchell, P. M. (n.d.). Ethnic school segregation in England: Measurement, change and prediction [Doctoral thesis, Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford]. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:a845e397-824e-48d4-b4e1-21e35e964ec2/files/r9k41zd98h

Muslim Census. (2024, August 8). 92% of UK Muslims feel less safe since the start of far-right riots. https://muslimcensus.co.uk/muslims-feel-less-safe-since-far-right-riots/

Sinhal, R. (2024). Schools Linking: How do we all live well together? In K. Iqbal & T. Abbas (Eds.), Ethnicity, religion, and Muslim education in a changing world: Navigating contemporary perspectives on multicultural schooling in the UK. Routledge.

Turner, R. H., & Cameron, L. (2016). Confidence in contact: A new perspective on promoting cross-group friendship among children and adolescents. Social Issues and Policy Review, 10(1), 212–246. https://doi.org/10.1111/sipr.12023

Youth Endowment Fund [YEF]. (2024, August 19). Reflecting on the UK riots: The impact on arrested teenagers and the urgent need for change. https://youthendowmentfund.org.uk/reflecting-on-the-uk-riots-the-impact-on-arrested-teenagers-and-the-urgent-need-for-change/