tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/trojan-horse-10851/articlesTrojan Horse – The Conversation2022-02-17T12:44:51Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1767302022-02-17T12:44:51Z2022-02-17T12:44:51ZTrojan Horse Affair: podcast reignites questions about the place of religion in English and Welsh schools<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446722/original/file-20220216-13-11ca2m8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=22%2C0%2C5047%2C3382&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/pupils-raise-hands-lesson-primary-school-503425867">Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A recent <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/podcasts/trojan-horse-affair.html">podcast series on the 2013-14 Trojan Horse affair</a> – an alleged but unproven plot to implement a strict Islamic ethos in some schools in Birmingham – has drawn attention to the place that religion occupies in state-funded education in England and Wales.</p>
<p>While some countries such as France or the United States make a clear separation between church and state and do not allow religion in state-funded schools, in England and Wales schools are <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13537903.2021.1958493">legally required</a> to hold daily acts of collective worship that must be broadly Christian in character, unless schools obtain permission to provide alternative worship.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-trojan-horse-affair-islamophobia-scholar-on-the-long-shadow-cast-by-the-scandal-176281">The Trojan Horse affair: Islamophobia scholar on the long shadow cast by the scandal</a>
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<p>All state-funded schools are also required to teach religious education (RE) classes. While Christianity occupies <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/281929/Collective_worship_in_schools.pdf">a privileged place</a> in RE, for the past 50 years pupils in England and Wales have also been learning about and from other <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/281929/Collective_worship_in_schools.pdf">“world religions”</a>, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, or Sikhism. Since 2015, schools have also been required to <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/403357/GCSE_RS_final_120215.pdf">teach about non-religious worldviews</a>.</p>
<p>However, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13537903.2021.1958493">my research</a> shows that RE teaching can be problematic. The children in my study tended to be unaware of the diversity of beliefs and practices within “world religions”. They regularly conflated religious belonging with ethnic identity.</p>
<p>The Trojan Horse affair not only exposed fears about the presence of Islam in English schools – schools which served a majority Muslim population – but also shed light on broader issues around religious belonging and what it means to be British. </p>
<h2>Operation Trojan Horse</h2>
<p>On 27 November 2013, Birmingham City Council received an anonymous letter that leaked pieces of supposed correspondence between Muslim fundamentalists, detailing an alleged plot – Operation Trojan Horse – to take over state-funded schools located in Muslim areas in Birmingham and promote a strict Islamic ethos.</p>
<p>Inquiries <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/340526/HC_576_accessible_-.pdf">did not find evidence</a> to support the idea of a plot to take over schools, and the Trojan Horse letter is considered to be fake. However, reports did find an effort to <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/340526/HC_576_accessible_-.pdf">introduce an Islamic ethos</a> into some schools, and run them as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/01/trojan-horse-the-real-story-behind-the-fake-islamic-plot-to-take-over-schools">faith schools</a>. </p>
<p>As a result, the government responded by implementing the anti-terrorism <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/97976/prevent-strategy-review.pdf">Prevent strategy</a> in schools. It also made it a requirement for all schools to promote <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/guidance-on-promoting-british-values-in-schools-published">“fundamental British values”</a>.</p>
<p>Implementing “fundamental British values” begs the question of what it means to be fundamentally British. For the UK government, it means adhering to the following values: democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect for and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs and for those without faith. </p>
<p>By promoting these values, schools are expected to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/guidance-on-promoting-british-values-in-schools-published">“strengthen barriers to extremism”</a>, and <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/guidance-on-promoting-british-values-in-schools-published">prepare pupils for life in modern Britain</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://research.aston.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/an-exploration-of-pupils-and-teachers-discursive-constructions-of">Scholars</a> have argued that these values are not inherently British, but by labelling them as such, it has sent the message that British values and Islam conservatism are <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02607476.2016.1184459">incompatible</a>. It is about who belongs to the in-group, and who is “othered”.</p>
<p>One way to promote respect and tolerance for those with different faiths and beliefs and for those without faith is through RE classes. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epub/10.1080/13537903.2021.1958493?needAccess=true">Research</a>, however, shows that all too often teachers are poorly equipped to teach RE adequately – perhaps due to a lack of subject knowledge or lack of confidence. The 2015 <a href="https://www.gold.ac.uk/media/documents-by-section/departments/research-centres-and-units/research-units/faiths-and-civil-society/REforREal-web-b.pdf">RE for REal report</a> identified a gap between the “real religion and belief landscape” and the one “imagined by the majority”.</p>
<h2>Teaching the “other”</h2>
<p>In order to investigate what that “imagined” landscape might look like in schools, between 2010 and 2015 I visited 18 primary schools across the West Midlands and spoke to teachers and pupils. The <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epub/10.1080/13537903.2021.1958493?needAccess=true">data</a> revealed that children found it difficult to locate themselves within RE, regardless of their religious or non-religious background. </p>
<p>Most children viewed RE as a way to learn about people who were different to them, rather than about themselves.</p>
<p>For example, when I asked Tom, a year six pupil, whether he thought RE was an important topic, he said yes, “if you go to a different country”. When I asked him if RE was still relevant if he was to stay in England, his response was “Yes, because it means, if they come over here, you can make them feel like they’re at home.”</p>
<p>As “world religions” are presented as un-diverse, in some cases this led to pupils being unsure about their own religious identities. This was the case for Adil: </p>
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<p>[My teacher] says that Muslims pray five times a day. […] So I’m not sure. I’d definitely say I’m a Muslim. But I don’t know if that’s the right word ‘cos I don’t pray five times a day … But I’d say it is. </p>
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<p>In other instances, children felt that their religious traditions was misrepresented, as did Rajan: “Sometimes [my teacher] says something wrong.” As a result, children were not only likely to feel alienated, but were also “othered” as they did not conform to dominant narratives.</p>
<p>My <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epub/10.1080/13537903.2021.1958493?needAccess=true">research</a> shows that it is time we paid closer attention to how religious communities are represented in RE. </p>
<p>Many within the RE community are increasingly <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/research-review-series-religious-education/research-review-series-religious-education">aware of the limits of the “world religions” approach</a>, and are calling for a move towards the study of <a href="https://www.commissiononre.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Final-Report-of-the-Commission-on-RE.pdf">religion and worldviews</a>, in order to be more representative of the religious and non-religious communities that live in Britain, and meet the needs of our diverse society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176730/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Céline Benoit does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>State schools in England and Wales are legally required to provide acts of collective worship.Céline Benoit, Senior Teaching Fellow, Sociology and Policy, Aston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1762812022-02-11T14:18:20Z2022-02-11T14:18:20ZThe Trojan Horse affair: Islamophobia scholar on the long shadow cast by the scandal<p>A new <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/podcasts/trojan-horse-affair.html">podcast series from the New York Times</a> is likely to rekindle interest in “Operation Trojan Horse”: an alleged plot by “hardline” Muslims to “take over” around <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/01/trojan-horse-the-real-story-behind-the-fake-islamic-plot-to-take-over-schools">20 state schools</a> in the city of Birmingham in 2014. Despite numerous investigations being undertaken at the time, <a href="https://policypress.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1332/policypress/9781447344131.001.0001/upso-9781447344131">no evidence of a plot</a> was found.</p>
<p>Across eight episodes, journalists Brian Reed and Hamza Syed seek to discover the author of the anonymous letter that triggered the scandal. As someone who has lived in Birmingham for more than two decades and has undertaken extensive research into the city’s Muslim communities for most of that, I was conflicted. While it was interesting to investigate who was behind the allegations, I was concerned that this could deflect attention away from the very real way the scandal has had a negative impact on the lives of many ordinary people. It’s important for me that others understand how the legacy of the affair is still felt today: both the city of Birmingham and its Muslim communities continuing to be perceived as problems.</p>
<h2>Accusations of extremism in schools</h2>
<p>The allegations were made in <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-26482599">an anonymous letter</a> published in the Sunday Telegraph. This alleged that teachers and governors in certain schools were being systematically overthrown and replaced by people who would run the schools according to conservative Islamic principles.</p>
<p>Michael Gove, then minister for education, appointed the former counter-terrorism chief <a href="https://archive.discoversociety.org/2014/07/01/operation-trojan-horse-how-a-hoax-problematised-muslims-and-islam/">Peter Clarke</a> to look into the allegations. This decision signalled an important shift. By bringing in a counter-terrorism chief, Gove was making it clear that this was not just seen as an educational issue – it was an investigation into potential extremism. West Midlands Police even <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/apr/15/police-chief-counter-terror-officer-islamic-schools-plot-birmingham">voiced concerns</a> about this sent to the city’s Muslims. </p>
<p>And, indeed, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/340526/HC_576_accessible_-.pdf">no evidence</a> emerged. Not of terrorism, violent extremism or radicalisation in any of the schools examined. </p>
<p>Yet the response from the government was that <a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/countering-extremism-in-british-schools">more needed to be done</a> to tackle the problem of extremism in schools. The UK government’s solution was to embed the teaching of “fundamental British values” in schools, effectively attributing the “problem” to <a href="https://search.informit.org/doi/pdf/10.3316/informit.642750048368195">Muslims</a>. While most have since carried on as normal, local schools and the communities they serve have continued to suffer the consequences.</p>
<h2>Lasting legacy</h2>
<p>In a telling moment from the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/podcasts/trojan-horse-affair.html">podcast</a>, former pupils of a Trojan Horse school explain that they fear saying which school they attended because of the potential detrimental impact it might have on their future education or career prospects. They fear guilt by association – that they will be seen as extremists or at least sympathetic to extremist views. For me, the shadow of Trojan Horse has the potential to stigmatise a whole generation of Birmingham’s Muslims.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/operation-trojan-horse-examining-the-islamic-takeover-of-birmingham-schools-25764">Operation Trojan Horse: examining the ‘Islamic takeover’ of Birmingham schools</a>
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<p>The truth is that this stigma started long before Trojan Horse. When the story broke, I had already been doing research into “Project Champion”, which saw more than 200 CCTV and ANPR <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1468796813492488">cameras</a> –some overt, others covert – installed around two of the most densely populated Muslims areas in the city. These were initially explained as an initiative to reduce street crime but it eventually emerged that both West Midlands Police and Birmingham City Council had lied. The cameras had been funded using counter-terrorism money.</p>
<p>By the time they were dismantled in 2011, the city’s Muslim communities were feeling increasingly anxious and ever more marginalised. Others in the city concluded that there was no smoke without fire – a theme that will resonate with anyone coming to the Trojan Horse story via the podcast. </p>
<h2>A ‘hotbed of extremism’</h2>
<p>Before the podcast, many people outside of the UK will have had their introduction to Birmingham when so-called terrorism expert Steve Emerson described the city on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jan/11/fox-news-steven-emerson-birmingham-muslims">Fox News</a> as “totally Muslim where non-Muslims simply don’t go in”. He was rightly mocked but there is something in the suggestion that Birmingham and its Muslim communities have become synonymous. This was evident after Khalid Masood killed five people <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/police-name-khalid-masood-as-westminster-attacker/">in London in 2017.</a> Despite having lived in Birmingham for less than a year, Masood somehow became a symbolic representation of the city. The Financial Times quoted a local man who described Birmingham as <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/c20027e8-0ff3-11e7-a88c-50ba212dce4d">a “hotbed” of Islamist extremism</a> and the Independent referred to a <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/london-attacker-khalid-masood-birmingham-uk-terrorists-breeding-ground-a7646536.html">“breeding ground for British-born terror”</a>. </p>
<p>Asking <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4344300/How-DID-Birmingham-jihadi-capital-Britain.html">“how did Birmingham become the jihadi capital of Britain?”</a> the Daily Mail added that a few miles from where Masood lived was Sparkbrook, where 26 of the country’s 269 “jihadis” had allegedly been “produced”. Just as with the Trojan Horse scandal, a selection of dots was connected to reach a convenient conclusion with apparently little thought for the wider repercussions. For those looking at Birmingham, the city’s problem was the city’s Muslims. </p>
<p>As the podcast explains, the evidence underpinning the Trojan Horse allegations was extremely flimsy. That they were taken so seriously is in many ways utterly bewildering. So, too, the impact the anonymous allegations have had – despite being proven to be unfounded. The belief that there’s no smoke without fire has had a very real and very detrimental impact on Birmingham and its Muslim communities. This will be true long after any interest in the new podcast has waned.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176281/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Allen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Despite no evidence of a plot emerging, the Trojan Horse affair had a real and detrimental impact.Chris Allen, Associate Professor, School of Criminology, University of LeicesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1524442020-12-29T14:17:19Z2020-12-29T14:17:19ZThe Sunburst hack was massive and devastating – 5 observations from a cybersecurity expert<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376591/original/file-20201223-23-11m8mdo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5674%2C3772&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Federal government agencies, from the Treasury Department to the National Nuclear Security Administration, have been compromised by the attack.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-morning-sun-rises-over-the-white-house-on-march-24-2019-news-photo/1137951124?adppopup=true">Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>So much remains unknown about what is now being called the Sunburst hack, the cyberattack against U.S. government agencies and corporations. U.S. officials <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/russian-government-spies-are-behind-a-broad-hacking-campaign-that-has-breached-us-agencies-and-a-top-cyber-firm/2020/12/13/d5a53b88-3d7d-11eb-9453-fc36ba051781_story.html">widely believe</a> that Russian state-sponsored hackers are responsible.</p>
<p>The attack gave the perpetrators access to numerous key American business and government organizations. The immediate effects will be difficult to judge, and a complete accounting of the damage is unlikely. However, the nature of the affected organizations alone makes it clear that this is perhaps the most consequential cyberattack against the U.S. to date.</p>
<p>An act of cyberwar is usually not like a bomb, which causes immediate, well-understood damage. Rather, it is more like a cancer – it’s slow to detect, difficult to eradicate, and it causes ongoing and significant damage over a long period of time. Here are five points that cybersecurity experts – the oncologists in the cancer analogy – can make with what’s known so far.</p>
<h2>1. The victims were tough nuts to crack</h2>
<p>From top-tier cybersecurity firm FireEye to the U.S. Treasury, Microsoft, Intel and many other organizations, the victims of the attack are for the most part firms with comprehensive cybersecurity practices. The list of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/list-of-companies-agencies-at-risk-after-solarwinds-hack-2020-12?op=1">organizations that use the compromised software</a> includes firms like MasterCard, Lockheed Martin and PricewaterhouseCoopers. SolarWinds estimates about <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/sec-filings-solarwinds-says-18000-customers-are-impacted-by-recent-hack/">18,000 firms</a> were affected.</p>
<p>As CEO of cybersecurity firm Cyber Reconnaissance Inc. and an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=OUAMn6oAAAAJ&hl=en">associate professor of computer science</a> at Arizona State University, I have met security professionals from many of the targeted organizations. Many of the organizations have world-class cybersecurity teams. These are some of the hardest targets to hit in corporate America. The victims of Sunburst were specifically targeted, likely with a primary focus on intelligence gathering.</p>
<h2>2. This was almost certainly the work of a nation – not criminals</h2>
<p>Criminal hackers focus on near-term financial gain. They use techniques like ransomware to extort money from their victims, steal financial information, and harvest computing resources for activities like sending spam emails or mining for cryptocurrency. </p>
<p>Criminal hackers exploit well-known security vulnerabilities that, had the victims been more thorough in their security, could have been prevented. The hackers typically target organizations with weaker security, like health care systems, universities and municipal governments. University networks are notoriously decentralized, difficult to secure, and often underfund cybersecurity. Medical systems tend to use specialty medical devices that run older, vulnerable software that is difficult to upgrade. </p>
<p>Hackers associated with national governments, on the other hand, have entirely different motives. They look for long-term access to critical infrastructure, gather intelligence and develop the means to disable certain industries. They also steal intellectual property – especially intellectual property that is expensive to develop in fields like high technology, medicine, defense and agriculture.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376596/original/file-20201223-49872-i98bca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A smart phone displaying the FireEye logo" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376596/original/file-20201223-49872-i98bca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376596/original/file-20201223-49872-i98bca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376596/original/file-20201223-49872-i98bca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376596/original/file-20201223-49872-i98bca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376596/original/file-20201223-49872-i98bca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376596/original/file-20201223-49872-i98bca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376596/original/file-20201223-49872-i98bca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">One of the targeted organizations, cybersecurity firm FireEye, would be a poor choice for cybercriminals but highly desirable for the Russian government or other adversaries of the U.S.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/in-this-photo-illustration-a-fireeye-cyber-security-company-news-photo/1230182459?adppopup=true">SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>The sheer amount of effort to infiltrate one of the Sunburst victim firms is also a telling sign that this was not a mere criminal hack. For example, a firm like FireEye is an inherently bad target for a criminal attacker. It has fewer than 4,000 employees yet has computer security on par with the world’s top defense and financial businesses. </p>
<h2>3. The attack exploited trusted third-party software</h2>
<p>The hackers gained access by slipping their malware into software updates of SolarWinds’ Orion software, which is widely used to manage large organizational networks. The Sunburst attack relied on a trusted relationship between the targeted organization and SolarWinds. When users of Orion updated their systems in the spring of 2020, they unwittingly invited a Trojan horse into their computer networks.</p>
<p>Aside from <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-21/solarwinds-adviser-warned-of-lax-security-years-before-hack">a report about lax security</a> at SolarWinds, very little is known about how the hackers gained initial access to SolarWinds. However, the Russians have used the tactic of compromising a third-party software update process before, in 2017. This was during the infamous <a href="https://medium.com/@PauloShak/learning-from-notpetya-43f2fea8994c">NotPetya</a> attack, which was considered the most financially <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/notpetya-cyberattack-ukraine-russia-code-crashed-the-world/">damaging cyberattack in history</a>. </p>
<h2>4. The extent of the damage is unknown</h2>
<p>It will take time to uncover the extent of the damage. The investigation is complicated because the attackers gained access to most of the victims in the spring of 2020, which gave the hackers time to expand and hide their access and control of the victims’ systems. For example, <a href="https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/12/vmware-flaw-a-vector-in-solarwinds-breach/">some experts believe</a> that a vulnerability in VMWare, software that is widely used in corporate networks, was also used to gain access to the victims’ systems, <a href="https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/vmware-denies-its-software-used-in-solarwinds-hack/2020/12/">though the company denies it</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376594/original/file-20201223-23-161id6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="the Microsoft logo on the side of a building" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376594/original/file-20201223-23-161id6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376594/original/file-20201223-23-161id6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376594/original/file-20201223-23-161id6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376594/original/file-20201223-23-161id6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376594/original/file-20201223-23-161id6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376594/original/file-20201223-23-161id6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376594/original/file-20201223-23-161id6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Some of the exposed organizations, like Microsoft, made limited use of the SolarWinds software, which appears to have contained the damage they suffered.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.app.goo.gl/at74GEFtP7Qac6ps7">Raimond Spekking</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I expect the damage to be spread unevenly among the victims. This will depend on various factors such as how extensively the organization used the SolarWinds software, how segmented its networks are, and the nature of their software maintenance cycle. For example, Microsoft <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-18/microsoft-says-its-systems-were-exposed-in-solarwinds-hack">reportedly had limited deployments of Orion</a>, so the attack had limited impact on their systems. </p>
<p>In contrast, the bounty the hackers stole from FireEye included <a href="https://blog.cyr3con.ai/the-vulnerabilities-fireeye-hackers-will-start-to-use">penetration testing tools</a>, which were used to test the defenses of high-end FireEye clients. The theft of these tools was likely prized by hackers to both increase their capabilities in future attacks as well as gain insights into what FireEye clients are protecting against.</p>
<h2>5. The fallout could include real-world harm</h2>
<p>There is a very thin, often nonexistent line between gathering information and causing real-world harm. What may start as spying or espionage can easily escalate into warfare. </p>
<p>The presence of malware on a computer system that gives the attacker greater user privileges is dangerous. Hackers can use control of a computer system to destroy computer systems, as was the case in the <a href="https://phys.org/news/2012-10-iran-cyberattack-saudi-ex-official.html">Iranian cyberattacks against Saudi Aramco in 2012</a>, and harm physical infrastructure, as was the case <a href="https://www.wired.com/2014/11/countdown-to-zero-day-stuxnet/">Stuxnet attack against Iranian nuclear facilities in 2010</a>. </p>
<p>Further, real harm can be done to individuals with information alone. For example, the <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/02/10/349004/the-us-says-the-chinese-military-hacked-equifax-heres-how/">Chinese breach of Equifax</a> in 2017 has put detailed financial and personal information about millions of Americans in the hands of one of the U.S.’s greatest strategic competitors.</p>
<p>No one knows the full extent of the Sunburst attack, but the scope is large and the victims represent important pillars of the U.S. government, economy and critical infrastructure. Information stolen from those systems and malware the hackers have likely left on them can be used for follow-on attacks. I believe it is likely that the Sunburst attack will result in harm to Americans. </p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152444/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paulo Shakarian works for/consults to/owns shares in Cyber Reconnaissance, Inc. (CYR3CON).</span></em></p>Cyberwarfare is more like cancer than bombs and bullets. Cybersecurity experts are just beginning to make their diagnosis of the Sunburst hack.Paulo Shakarian, Associate Professor of Computer Science, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/823592017-11-16T10:55:23Z2017-11-16T10:55:23ZHow to discuss Islam and education following the Trojan Horse ‘plot’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194784/original/file-20171115-19841-pt2y8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Making sure all religions are accounted for in British schools.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-41282330">Recent research</a> shows more than a quarter of secondary schools in England do not feature religious education on the syllabus. This is despite the subject being compulsory for all state-funded schools – which includes academies and free schools.</p>
<p>According to findings by the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/17/quarter-secondary-schools-break-law-failing-teach-religious/">National Association of Teachers of Religious Education</a>, many schools could be “breaking the law”, with pupils “missing out on religious education”.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/collective-worship-in-schools">Daily acts of Christian worship are required</a> by law in all schools – except where there are special arrangements for other faiths. But with Christianity on the decline and the wider population of the UK becoming <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-better-education-has-built-a-more-secular-britain-83656">increasingly secular in orientation</a>, there is a serious need for a debate about the role of religious education and collective worship in English schools. This is especially important when you take into account the fact that <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/uk/Church-of-England-in-decline-Islam-fastest-growing-in-UK-Survey/articleshow/47508471.cms">Islam is the fastest growing religion in the UK</a>. </p>
<p>But this debate cannot happen while there is still such hysteria surrounding the so-called “Trojan Horse plot” to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/may/30/trojan-horse-tribunal-five-birmingham-teachers-islam">Islamicise schools</a> – which made the headlines in 2014. The <a href="http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/20549/1/Report_into_allegations_concerning_Birmingham_schools_arising_from_the_Trojan_Horse_letter-web.pdf">accusation was that a group of conservative Muslims</a> were working to take over a number of schools in Birmingham.</p>
<h2>The stain of accusation</h2>
<p>Back in 2014, at the height of the Trojan Horse accusations, a special Ofsted inspection of 21 schools in Birmingham took place. It saw one of the schools – Park View academy – downgraded from the highest to the lowest rating overnight. The school had been previously rated as outstanding but was placed in special measures. <a href="https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/files/2391877/urn/138059.pdf">Ofsted Inspectors alleged</a> the school had failed to teach students enough about religions other than Islam, segregated boys and girls in classes, and had failed to give adequate sex education lessons.</p>
<p>Two inquiries, on behalf of the <a href="https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/downloads/file/1579/investigation_report_trojan_horse_letter_the_kershaw_report">City Council</a> and the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/birmingham-schools-education-commissioners-report">Secretary of State for Education</a> were set up, which led to <a href="http://www.pvet.co.uk/">Park View Education Trust</a> being dissolved. </p>
<p>Its senior leadership team and some other teachers were also subjected to professional misconduct inquiries by the National College of Teaching and Leadership (NCTL). The government also went on to require schools to promote “fundamental British values” and outlined a new counter-extremism strategy, <a href="http://www.policypress.co.uk/asset/4402/countering-extremism-in-british-schools-introduction.pdf">stating</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>As Trojan Horse demonstrated, children can be vulnerable to purposeful efforts by extremists to take control of their schools and create a space where extremist ideologies can be spread unchallenged.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But then events took a different turn in May of this year when the <a href="https://schoolsweek.co.uk/long-read-is-the-nctl-fit-for-purpose-after-trojan-horse-collapse/">NCTL case against the senior teachers collapsed</a>. This was because it was found that documents relevant to the defence had been <a href="http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/trojan-horse-disciplinary-action-against-13112927">deliberately withheld from disclosure</a>. </p>
<h2>Unresolved tensions</h2>
<p>Commentators close to the government were quick to respond. A special adviser at the Department for Education at the time of the Trojan Horse affair, Jaime Martin, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=eFI8DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT22&lpg=PT22&dq=It+is+important+to+note+as+they+were+not+tried+for+the+charges,+they+were+therefore+not+cleared+of+them&source=bl&ots=Sx3PO-JKoC&sig=2WJqsGxHn-BNioRALQWduafCRVY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjEr-Og-r3XAhWqLsAKHQbLBO8Q6AEIJjAA#v=onepage&q=It%20is%20important%20to%20note%20as%20they%20were%20not%20tried%20for%20the%20charges%2C%20they%20were%20therefore%20not%20cleared%20of%20them&f=false">wrote</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is important to note as they were not tried for the charges, they were therefore not cleared of them.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And further: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>People who downplay the seriousness of Trojan Horse, claiming those involved exhibited ‘mainstream’ Islamic views, are guilty not only of stunning naivety, but of a dangerous error.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194787/original/file-20171115-19829-4n7sgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194787/original/file-20171115-19829-4n7sgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194787/original/file-20171115-19829-4n7sgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194787/original/file-20171115-19829-4n7sgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194787/original/file-20171115-19829-4n7sgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194787/original/file-20171115-19829-4n7sgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194787/original/file-20171115-19829-4n7sgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Should there be more Muslim state schools?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shuttertstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A similar claim was made by the conservative think tank, <a href="https://policyexchange.org.uk/">Policy Exchange</a>. The co-head of its security and extremism unit, Hannah Stuart, and its head of education, John David Blake <a href="https://policyexchange.org.uk/trojan-horse-if-anyone-is-still-in-any-doubt-that-the-practices-uncovered-were-inappropriate-just-listen-to-the-pupils/">proposed</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Non-disclosure of anonymous witness statements from the inquiry was described as an ‘abuse of process’, and that is deeply unfortunate, but this falls short of an exoneration.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Mass hysteria</h2>
<p>Recently, Nick Timothy former adviser to the prime minister, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/01/trojan-horse-dragged-back-schools-must-stopped/">wrote in the Telegraph</a> to condemn a public meeting in Birmingham, which was called to discuss the Trojan Horse affair. Timothy said the Telegraph had managed to get the owners of the venue to cancel the event after suggestions that those involved were part of a new “plot” to deny the Trojan horse scandal. This is despite the fact that the case collapsed earlier this year.</p>
<p>In fact, the event was an opportunity to discuss the lasting impact the Trojan Horse allegations have had on the community in Birmingham. And <a href="http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/anger-over-debate-asking-whether-13849408">speakers at the event</a> included myself and one other academic, Shamin Miah, as well as the journalist Peter Oborne, and a barrister in the case, Andrew Faux. We were also to be joined by the general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, Kevin Courtney, local politician, Salma Yacoob and Tahir Alam, the former chair of governors at Park View Educational Trust – the academy governing body of the school at the centre of the allegations. </p>
<h2>Lasting impact</h2>
<p>Park View academy had been a failing school in 1996, but it had turned things around and was in the top 14% of all schools in the country for its GCSE results in 2012. This was despite 73% of its pupils being on free school meals – an indicator of social deprivation – and just 8% of pupils with English as a first language. </p>
<p>The school had been designated as a “National Support School” to share its expertise, a lot of which was put down to having religious values in the classroom that reflected the home lives of students – this is a part of Birmingham where <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/01/trojan-horse-the-real-story-behind-the-fake-islamic-plot-to-take-over-schools">almost 80% of residents are Muslim</a>. </p>
<p>Park View’s successor school, Rockwood Academy, now has below average academic success. So even though it is well known that academic achievement is one of the best means of securing social integration, suspicion of Islamic expression within schools has had the opposite effect. </p>
<p>All of which has been done in the name of “British values”. But given that the <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/ethnicity/articles/2011censusanalysisethnicityandreligionofthenonukbornpopulationinenglandandwales/2015-06-18">most recent census</a> shows the UK has become more ethnically diverse than ever before – minority ethnic groups continue to rise, while the proportion of people who identify as white decreases – maybe it’s time to consider what these “British values” really mean in terms of religious education.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82359/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Holmwood was an expert witness for the defence in the NCTL professional misconduct case against senior teachers at Park View Educational Trust. </span></em></p>There needs to be an urgent debate on the education of Muslim pupils in British schools, but this seems impossible in the current climate.John Holmwood, Professor of Sociology, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/547492016-02-26T09:32:08Z2016-02-26T09:32:08ZDonald Trump’s grandfather was an illegal migrant and ‘Trojan horse’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112889/original/image-20160225-15160-18bowtq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Beware Trojan horses.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/5440393641/in/photolist-9hKrun-9hKoKX-9hNvfQ-9hHrVT-9hNwi1-9hKpTt-9hLwdw-9hNvzC-9hNwCN-9hKraP-9hLx6s-9hNvKd-9hKrkx-9hNuLJ-9hKoVK-9hLwSC-9kwYUn-C6udkQ-BNZ3hL-C8Pssr-BiHMv8-BNWFAu-BNWjHC-C6ww1q-BiC1bG-BNWJKL-BGy26H-C6xb7A-C6uA6y-BiFBtt-BiyDcy-BiHTPk-Cg5eLB-BGBPZr-BNYyv3-BiJ9LV-Cg54uK-CdNqkh-BiHk5c-C6tV3J-CdP4D5-C6xt8Q-BNZwsy-BiJGEp-BNZCzU-Cg8iv4-Cu2hrT-HkLZL-CdHmrW-BGvjmF">Gage Skidmore/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>During New Year celebrations in Cologne, there were more than 500 reported attacks against women, including robbery and sexual assault. Most of the suspects are of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35277249">North African origin</a>, and some are thought to have entered the country <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35647308">illegally</a> or as asylum seekers. </p>
<p>The news was welcome campaign fodder for US presidential hopeful Donald Trump. Referring to German chancellor Angela Merkel’s open door policy on refugees from Syria, <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/01/12/trump_germans_are_going_to_riot_overthrow_merkel_syrian_migrants_could_be_trojan_horse.html">he commented</a> in his usual rhetoric: “I don’t know what the hell she is thinking”.</p>
<p>Trump went on to say that he did not want to have “people coming in from migration from Syria (sic)” as these were aggressive young men who “look like they should be on the wrestling team”. More dangerously still, Trump believed such people could act as terrorist <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2015/11/16/politics/donald-trump-syrian-refugees/">“Trojan horses”</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/K9Pr6a_nMU4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Trump’s comments are in line with his vicious verbal attacks on <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/16/donald-trump-mexico-presidential-speech-latino-hispanic">Mexicans and other immigrant groups</a> in the United States. But they betray his own family background. His grandfather, <a href="http://books.simonandschuster.com/The-Trumps/Gwenda-Blair/9780743210799">Friedrich Trump</a>, a German, lived a migrant life in the US on the edge of illegality and rejection. During the World War I, he belonged to an immigrant group which was sweepingly labelled the “enemy within” or – in his grandson’s parlance – a Trojan horse.</p>
<h2>The great wave</h2>
<p>Friedrich Trump was swept to the United States in one of the biggest waves of <a href="https://theconversation.com/writing-home-how-german-immigrants-found-their-place-in-the-us-53342">mass migration in history</a>. During the 1880s and early 1890s, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/products/9780415892261">1.8m Germans emigrated</a> to various European and overseas destinations. When young Friedrich arrived in New York in 1885 he joined around 200,000 of his compatriots who had already settled in the metropolis, forming a distinct “Little Germany”. After working for six years as a barber, he was caught by the Gold Rush, moved west and opened up a chain of restaurants and hotels in Washington State and British Columbia. Hospitality did not only include food and lodging, but also <a href="http://books.simonandschuster.com/The-Trumps/Gwenda-Blair/9780743210799">alcohol and prostitution</a>. Friedrich anglicised his name to Frederick and became a US citizen. </p>
<p>By 1901, Frederick had made a small fortune and decided to return to his hometown of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/29/kallstadt-germany-on-the-trail-of-the-donald-in-the-trump-ancestral-home">Kallstadt</a> in south-west Germany. (Incidentally, the Heinz family of Ketchup fame has its origins in the same town.) Frederick married his childhood sweetheart, Elisabeth, and planned to settle down. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112891/original/image-20160225-15136-jbmwaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112891/original/image-20160225-15136-jbmwaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112891/original/image-20160225-15136-jbmwaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112891/original/image-20160225-15136-jbmwaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112891/original/image-20160225-15136-jbmwaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1025&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112891/original/image-20160225-15136-jbmwaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1025&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112891/original/image-20160225-15136-jbmwaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1025&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Frederick Trump.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Bavarian Palatinate authorities, however, would not let him. They claimed he had left Germany as an illegal emigrant, evading taxes and the compulsory two-year military service. Frederick pleaded that he and Elisabeth were <a href="http://books.simonandschuster.com/The-Trumps/Gwenda-Blair/9780743210799">“loyal Germans and stand behind the high Kaiser and the mighty German Reich”</a>. It was all to no avail. The Trumps were evicted and resettled to New York. </p>
<h2>Wartime spy fever</h2>
<p>World War I was not a happy time for German-Americans. They were summarily labelled as “alien enemies” whose true allegiance lay with the Fatherland. Nativist spokesmen agitated against “hyphenated Americans” as potential spies and saboteurs. Use of the German language was seen with suspicion. In contrast to many of their compatriots, the Trumps did not need to anglicise their surname as it worked perfectly in English. </p>
<p>The most notorious case of public violence was the lynching of German immigrant <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/title/bonds-of-loyalty-german-americans-and-world-war-i/oclc/865969">Robert Prager</a> in Illinois. He was tarred and feathered, forced by an agitated crowd to kiss the American flag and sing patriotic songs, and finally hanged from a tree in front of 200 onlookers. </p>
<p>Frederick Trump evaded the fate of Prager, but not the other deadly weapon which swept the world once the war was nearing its end. In 1918 and 1919, <a href="http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/12/1/pdfs/05-0979.pdf">Spanish influenza</a> killed between 20m and 50m people worldwide. On a summer’s day in 1918, Frederick returned home from a stroll through New York with his son Fred (Donald’s father), went to bed feeling sick, and passed away the next day. </p>
<h2>Paranoid nation</h2>
<p>The dangerous mix of paranoia and xenophobia directed against German-Americans during World War I had profound and long-lasting effects. The Alien Enemy Bureau was established in the early days of the war with a brief to identify and arrest disloyal foreigners. It was headed by J. Edgar Hoover, then a young civil servant in the Justice Department. Here he picked up the tools he would use later as all-powerful director of the FBI. </p>
<p>In 1940, the notorious House Un-American Affairs Committee published <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/american-government-politics-and-policy/religious-persecution-and-political-order-united-states?format=PB">The Trojan Horse in America</a>, a compendium of domestic organisations believed to work for foreign powers. Chapter titles included “Mussolini’s Trojan Horse in America” and “A Trojan Horse of German War Veterans”. </p>
<p>All this was reason enough for the business-minded Trumps to deny their German heritage, claiming they hailed from Sweden instead. Donald’s father Fred invested heavily in New York real estate, laying the foundations for today’s business empire. It was only from the 1980s that Donald Trump started to <a href="http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/wahl-in-amerika/donald-trumps-wurzeln-king-of-new-york-knallkopf-of-kallstadt-14017048.html">stand by his German roots</a>.</p>
<p>Trump’s own grandfather was an illegal emigrant whose income stream included alcohol and prostitution at a time when these were legally contested. He was an unwanted returnee to Germany, and then a potential “enemy alien” within the United States who had declared his loyalty to the German Kaiser – but ultimately made an immense economic contribution spanning generations. </p>
<p>Today, his grandson lambastes Mexicans as criminals, intends to erect a wall to keep them out, and warns of Syrian refugees as Trojan horses. If Donald Trump wins his party’s nomination, historians will have many a field day digging out the contradictions between his anti-immigrant rhetoric and his family background.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54749/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stefan Manz receives funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Gerda Henkel Foundation. </span></em></p>Trump’s bellicose rhetoric belies his own family’s troubled migrant past.Stefan Manz, Reader in German, Aston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/549292016-02-18T11:43:00Z2016-02-18T11:43:00ZWhat does the head of Ofsted do?<p>Ministers <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/12156541/Ministers-looking-abroad-for-new-chief-inspector-of-schools.html">are thought to be looking</a> to the US, Canada and northern Europe in their search for the next chief inspector of schools. With the current head of Ofsted, Michael Wilshaw, due to step down in December at the end of his term, secretary of state Nicky Morgan is reportedly keen to find someone with a track record of pushing through education reform against resistance from unions. </p>
<p>The idea that a new head of Ofsted brought in from a totally different cultural context will somehow be able to wave a magic wand over English education is not only both misguided and myopic, but shows a fundamental ignorance of what Ofsted was set up to do.</p>
<p>Being the head of Ofsted has never been an easy role. The chief inspector must both protect the agency’s robust independence and negotiate the tricky path of government policy. This has led to considerable tension within the job ever since Ofsted was established in 1992.</p>
<p>Deciding on a new chief inspector would be a little more straightforward if the government could decide what Ofsted is actually for. Set up as one of the quangos that formed part of John Major’s Citizen Charter, it <a href="http://www.policypress.co.uk/display.asp?k=9781447326021">was designed to arm</a> parents with more accessible information on schools in order for them to choose where to send their children. </p>
<p>Its central tenet is to “inspect without fear or favour”, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2014/mar/21/michael-wilshaw-ofsted-speech-ascl">a mantra</a> that has been used over the years to stress its separation from government and lack of political or pedagogical partiality when it comes to teaching methods or approach.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"698798732792438784"}"></div></p>
<p>Since 1992, government pressure has seen it vacillate between being a regulatory body, school improvement agency and more recently, as the implementer of <a href="https://theconversation.com/teachers-on-the-frontline-against-terror-what-should-schools-do-about-radicalisation-43942">counter-terrorism policy</a>. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted/about">It has a vast remit</a>, tasked with regulating all services that care for children and young people, such as children’s centres and childminding, along with education and skills providers for learners of all ages.</p>
<h2>Pulled in many directions</h2>
<p>During Wilshaw’s tenure at the head of Ofsted he has been the subject of intense media scrutiny. He began the role in January 2012, appointed with optimistic zeal by then secretary of state for education, Michael Gove, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-chief-inspector-to-be-appointed">and fêted</a> as a personification of outstanding educational leadership. Wilshaw had been praised for his ability to create an outstanding school in an area of high deprivation – the Mossbourne Community Academy in Hackney. </p>
<p>He began by introducing a far more “rigorous” inspection framework, combining this with a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/jul/22/school-inspections-ofsted-must-improve">re-modelling of the inspection workforce</a> to include more headteacher as inspectors. This was <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/oct/18/headteachers-ofsted-inspectors-accountability">a move aimed to counter accusations</a> that many inspectors were out of touch as they had been out of school for a number of years. </p>
<p>At first, he appeared to align with much government policy and became accused of being <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/jan/23/chief-inspector-schools-michael-wilshaw">“far too” cosy with government agenda</a>. But a series of very public spats between Wilshaw and Gove proved him to be far more obdurate and less pliable than the media originally portrayed him to be. </p>
<p>These arguments, which reached a crescendo <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-25900547">with a vitriolic attack</a> on Ofsted by a right-wing thinktank, were largely the result of Wilshaw’s growing discontent with <a href="http://www.policypress.co.uk/display.asp?K=9781447326021&dtspan=0:90&ds=Forthcoming%20Titles&m=12&dc=47">the very limited accountability</a> of free schools and academies – the government’s flagship education reform to give more autonomy to schools. This was a discontent that proved to be well-founded following the <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmselect/cmeduc/473/47304.htm">report into the Trojan Horse Affair</a> over extremist influence in Birmingham schools, which detailed just how dire and fragmented educational accountability in England has become.</p>
<h2>Bellwether of educational change</h2>
<p>The role of chief inspector is as powerful as the agency it represents, functioning as “the voice” of the organisation, speaking to both teaching profession and public. Some of Wilshaw’s predecessors embraced the public aspect of the role more than others – none more so than the late <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jun/23/sir-chris-woodhead">Chris Woodhead</a>. He positioned the role at the epicentre of all educational debate, creating a larger-than-life media persona characterised by a pugilistic style of rhetoric, while pursuing “educational excellence” with quasi-religious zeal.</p>
<p>Others, such as Sir David Bell, carried out their work in a far less overt manner. But in spite of their very different styles, all had one thing in common: they were familiar with the culture and contexts of education in England and all came from the UK.</p>
<p>Ofsted was not set up to push through education reforms against resistance from unions, nor was it established to push any particular party political agenda. It was set up to provide information to parents in an increasingly marketised environment.</p>
<p>The chief inspector is there to ensure that this is done in an impartial and unbiased way. Carrying out this work, particularly in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-governments-vision-for-education-is-difficult-to-swallow-heres-why-53349">fragmented and opaque system of educational accountability</a> that exists in England today, demands the type of cultural and nuanced understanding of the English system that individuals outside of the UK are unlikely to possess.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54929/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<h4 class="border">Disclosure</h4><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacqueline Baxter is affiliated as an elected member of The Council of The British Educational Leadership Management and Administration Society (BELMAS) an independent voice supporting quality education through effective leadership and management. I</span></em></p>The government’s search outside the UK for the next chief inspector of schools is misguided.Jacqueline Baxter, Lecturer in Public Policy and Management , The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/470122015-09-04T10:46:08Z2015-09-04T10:46:08ZLike it or not, schools are being converted into academies – that’s anti-democratic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93672/original/image-20150902-14045-ftgfb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A protest against the academisation of the Hewett School in Norwich.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/rogerblackwell/16647348949/sizes/l">Roger Blackwell/flickr.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As children head back to class this week, another school will be opening its doors for the autumn term as an academy – in spite of opposition from parents and the community. From early September the <a href="http://www.hewett.org.uk/">Hewett School</a>, a secondary school in Norwich, will form part of <a href="http://www.inspirationtrust.org/">The Inspiration Trust</a>, a not-for-profit charity which runs a chain of academies. In yet another blow for democratic governance the school is the latest in a long line to be converted <a href="http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/education/anger_as_government_confirms_hewett_school_will_become_an_inspiration_trust_academy_next_term_1_4181708">against the wishes</a> of many of its parents and the governing body, raising renewed questions about the democratic governance of the English education system.</p>
<p>As in the case of a number of other schools graded inadequate and subsequently <a href="https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-news/forced-academy-numbers-triple-primary-level-over-last-year">turned into academies</a>, it is only a short time ago that the Hewett School was judged to be “good” by schools inspectorate Ofsted. In May 2013 it received a “good” report in all areas – an improvement on its previous grade of satisfactory – with teaching graded as <a href="https://www.google.fr/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CD8QFjADahUKEwja3c30utjHAhVGlYAKHc1sAHs&url=http%3A%2F%2Freports.ofsted.gov.uk%2Findex.php%3Fq%3Dfiledownloading%2F%26id%3D2228253%26type%3D1%26refer%3D0&usg=AFQjCNG5FxBpmjzTPR3BNYwvcwxzVeD_dQ">good and sometimes outstanding</a>. But in November 2014 the school was <a href="https://www.google.fr/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=8&ved=0CEsQFjAHahUKEwj7uICZu9jHAhVCgA0KHW4nC7s&url=http%3A%2F%2Freports.ofsted.gov.uk%2Findex.php%3Fq%3Dfiledownloading%2F%26id%3D2434838%26type%3D1%26refer%3D0&usg=AFQjCNEb2q751NvmzW50zuw7AvBqxOtJBA">placed in special measures</a> after a follow up Ofsted inspection.</p>
<p>A monitoring visit paid to the school <a href="http://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report/provider/ELS/121173">in February 2015</a> showed that although there were still outstanding issues, progress was being made. A follow up visit in May 2015 confirmed that the school was making reasonable progress towards the removal of special measures. But <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-32051978">in March 2015</a> the Department of Education (DfE) <a href="http://www.hewett.org.uk/util.php?um=file&ref=734&ty=DOCS">had already informed the school</a> that it was to constitute the governing body as an Interim Executive Board (IEB) and that it was possible that the school would become an academy. The final decision, that the school would be <a href="http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/education/anger_as_government_confirms_hewett_school_will_become_an_inspiration_trust_academy_next_term_1_4181708">academised and taken over by The Inspiration Trust</a>, was made in August 2015.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.hewett.org.uk/util.php?um=file&ref=734&ty=DOCS">Of the parents that participated in the consultation</a>, 4:1 were against it. In some cases respondents to the questionnaire accepted conversion to academy but questioned the process, the lack of choice of sponsor and a failure to communicate effectively why such a decision had been made.</p>
<p>A pervasive sense of dissatisfaction with the choice of sponsor was a key reason why many were so against it being turned into an academy. The reasons given for this in the consultation were: “perception of the ethos of schools in the trust, political links of the trustees, the governance arrangements of the trust and lack of accountability.”</p>
<p>The Inspiration Trust has been linked to controversy. The trust, headed by Dame Rachel de Souza, ran one of three schools that were the subject of an investigation by <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/sep/09/ofsted-complaint-school-off-inspection-teachers">Ofsted following allegations</a> in 2014 that they had received prior notification of inspection dates due to De Souza’s position as both a “superhead” of the three schools and as a part-time school inspector. This raised questions about the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/oct/18/headteachers-ofsted-inspectors-accountability">detrimental effects of employing</a> practising headteachers as inspectors. In January 2015, the schools <a href="http://schoolsweek.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Report_to_HMCI_following_an_investigation_into_allegations_of_inspection_irregularities_in_three_Norfolk_schools.pdf">were cleared</a> of wrongdoing by an independent review of Ofsted’s <a href="http://schoolsweek.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Report_to_HMCI_following_an_investigation_into_allegations_of_inspection_irregularities_in_three_Norfolk_schools.pdf">original investigation</a>. </p>
<h2>Convert or close</h2>
<p>The government’s academisation project took another leap forward earlier this year when the education secretary, Nicky Morgan, announced her intention to address the problem of <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-a-coasting-school-41993">“coasting schools”</a>. The government plans to convert these schools – who fail to ensure that 60% of pupils gain five A* to C grades and don’t have a “credible” improvement plan – to academy status. This is in spite of the fact that to date there is <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-convincing-evidence-that-academies-are-pushing-up-school-standards-36728">no convincing evidence</a> that the current system of academies improve performance.</p>
<p>As the <a href="http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2015-16/educationandadoption.html">education and adoption bill</a> – the legislation seeking to implement Morgan’s proposals – makes its way through parliament after the summer recess, the outlook for coasting schools that resist conversion looks decidedly bleak.</p>
<p>Resistance against “forced” conversion is not a new phenomenon. The <a href="http://www.antiacademies.org.uk/">Anti Academies Alliance</a> contains a catalogue of conversions of local authority-run schools into academies that were bitterly opposed by governors and parents. Many within education and outside of it are opposed to the highly politicised nature of conversions and the lack of evidence that these conversions are in the best interests of the students. </p>
<h2>Holding school commissioners to account</h2>
<p>Tensions surrounding the whole area of forced academisation are also reflected in the new system of local accountability, set up by the government in response to the public and political outcry surrounding the so-called <a href="https://theconversation.com/children-at-risk-of-extremism-could-fall-through-growing-gaps-in-school-system-44875">“Trojan Horse” affair</a> in 2014, and fears over an Islamic extremism agenda in Birmingham schools. The affair exposed the dearth of local accountability that prevails in many regions of England, caused by an erosion in funding and consisted media attacks undermining public trust in local education authorities. </p>
<p>Under the new system, eight <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/schools-commissioners-group">regional school commissioners</a> (RSCs), appointed by the DfE are advised by a headteachers board made up of four elected academy heads and “experienced professional leaders” to provide sector expertise and “local knowledge”. </p>
<p>The scheme immediately provoked questions following the announcement that one of the key performance measures for RSCs was the number of academy conversions they had each achieved within a given period. <a href="http://schoolsweek.co.uk/role-review-for-regional-schools-commissioners-if-education-bill-passes/">Although this may yet be reversed</a>, the whole area of school commissioners, how they are held to account and how they manage the vast areas that fall within their remit, is still not clear. </p>
<p>The relationship between regional commissioners and headteacher boards is also fairly vague and is contained in a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/schools-commissioners-group/about/our-governance">single line on the DfE website</a> which states that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Each RSC gets support from a headteachers board (HTB). HTBs are made up of experienced academy headteachers who advise and challenge RSCs on the decisions they make.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>What is not clear is what power headteacher boards have to veto any decisions made by a regional commissioner.</p>
<p>The whole system of accountability in education is worrying to say the least. It is far from clear how the current arrangements are fit to ensure that those in leadership positions are abiding by the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-7-principles-of-public-life/the-7-principles-of-public-life--2">seven principles of public life</a>: that they are acting in the public interest with integrity, objectivity, openness and that in their leadership roles they are acting in accordance with these principles.</p>
<p>Parliament’s <a href="http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/education-committee/news-parliament-2015/launch-regional-schools-15-16/">education select committee</a> is now starting a inquiry into how RSCs will be held to account, and will also explore their relationship to Ofsted, individual schools and local communities. It is hoped that MPs’ findings will do something to provide clarity in the increasingly muddy and obfuscating system of educational accountability in England today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/47012/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
As children head back to class this week, another school will be opening its doors for the autumn term as an academy – in spite of opposition from parents and the community. From early September the Hewett…Jacqueline Baxter, Lecturer in Public Policy and Management , The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/470322015-09-04T03:41:28Z2015-09-04T03:41:28ZJailbreaking iOS frees you from Apple but exposes you to malware<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93842/original/image-20150904-28868-1loji0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=142%2C190%2C2181%2C1291&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Apple's 'walled garden' might be frustrating, but it does protect your devices from being hacked.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Faris Algosaibi/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>While Apple’s Mac OS X reputation for superior security to Windows has <a href="https://theconversation.com/which-is-more-vulnerable-to-viruses-and-hackers-windows-10-or-mac-os-x-45762">little technical basis</a>, iOS (the operating system for iPhones and iPads) is a very different story. As such, when nearly a quarter of a million Apple accounts <a href="http://www.net-security.org/malware_news.php?id=3089">were compromised by malware</a> recently, it was a big surprise for many people. </p>
<p>So far Apple has been able to keep the iPhone and iPad almost completely free of <a href="http://www.pctools.com/security-news/what-is-malware/">malware</a>. While iOS malware – some of it apparently <a href="http://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/pawn-storm-update-ios-espionage-app-found/">created by intelligence agencies</a> – does exist, only a minority of users have been vulnerable to most of it.</p>
<p>And to be vulnerable, an iOS device must first be “jailbroken”.</p>
<p>iOS’s “jail” – or to put it more diplomatically: its “<a href="http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/54187/walled-garden">walled garden</a>” – is at the root of its impressive security record. But this comes at a price that some users are not willing to pay, and this places them at greater risk of being hacked.</p>
<h2>iOS security: signatures required</h2>
<p>Every iOS device contains <a href="http://www.apple.com/business/docs/iOS_Security_Guide.pdf">special hardware and software</a> designed to ensure that only software authorised by Apple can be run on it. </p>
<p>Every piece of software that runs on an iOS device, including iOS itself, must be digitally “signed” by Apple with the private half of a two-part digital “key”. Each iOS device has the “public” half of the key. Before any piece of software is allowed to run, the phone uses the public key to check whether the software signature is authentic and applies to the software actually present on the device. If either the software or the signature have been modified, the software will not run. </p>
<p>This signature is practically impossible to forge without access to Apple’s private key. And, thus far, the mechanisms within iOS for checking signatures have been pretty much watertight, at least without physically connecting the phone to a computer with a USB cable.</p>
<p>Related mechanisms allow Apple to restrict a downloaded app from running on an iOS device or to revoke permission for an app to run at any time. Notably, this means that using illegally copied software is impossible on an unmodified iOS device.</p>
<p>All apps on Apple’s App Store are signed by Apple. These apps are made available on the App Store only after they have undergone an extensive vetting process according to the company’s <a href="https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/">published guidelines</a>. </p>
<p>While keeping malware and other forms of objectionable software off the App Store is a primary goal, the guidelines also impose commercial restrictions. For example, subscription apps must use Apple’s payment mechanism, on which Apple collects a 30% commission. </p>
<p>This practice has attracted negative comment <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2015/7/22/9016449/al-franken-letter-government-apple-music">from US federal Senator Al Franken</a>, who has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate what he views as potentially illegal anti-competitive behaviour under US law.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93843/original/image-20150904-28909-1sbc8k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93843/original/image-20150904-28909-1sbc8k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93843/original/image-20150904-28909-1sbc8k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93843/original/image-20150904-28909-1sbc8k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93843/original/image-20150904-28909-1sbc8k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93843/original/image-20150904-28909-1sbc8k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93843/original/image-20150904-28909-1sbc8k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93843/original/image-20150904-28909-1sbc8k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jailbreaking can give you – or hackers – access to the guts of your device.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">MIKI Yoshihito/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Tinkerers, pirates and foreign language speakers</h2>
<p>Some iOS users are unwilling to accept the restrictions imposed on them by Apple, or sometimes Apple-authorised apps, for a variety of reasons. To circumvent these restrictions, they take advantage of flaws in iOS’s security regime to install additional non-authorised software by first “jailbreaking” their device. </p>
<p>Jailbreaking an iOS device requires a program such as <a href="http://www.taig.com/en/">TaiG</a>, which anonymous programmers have made available at no cost. A user downloads TaiG to their PC or Mac, connects their iOS device and then runs TaiG.</p>
<p>As well as allowing the user unfettered access to the files hidden behind the scenes on their iOS device, TaiG installs a “package manager” called Cydia. Through this they can install new apps unapproved by Apple, which are available from a variety of third-party repositories, as well as “tweaks” to modify existing apps.</p>
<p>Some of the <a href="http://www.igeeksblog.com/best-ios-8-cydia-tweaks/">extra functionality downloadable through Cydia</a> includes a tweak to allow easy saving of photos on an Instagram feed, modifying the system fonts and improved Chinese language input. Historically, Apple’s stock iOS Chinese keyboard <a href="http://technode.com/2013/02/05/why-do-we-need-jailbreak-for-ios-in-china/">has been inferior</a> to unauthorised third-party keyboards.</p>
<p>However, it can’t be denied that the ability to install pirated software is also attractive to some iOS users. It appears this was both the downfall of the victims of the recent hack and a goal of the hackers. </p>
<p>The malware was distributed as a “<a href="https://usa.kaspersky.com/internet-security-center/threats/trojans#.Vej0-vmqpBc">Trojan horse</a>” through repositories of (mainly pirated) software accessible through Cydia in China (although it was not managed by the Cydia creator itself). Once installed, it stole the Apple account credentials of the user who installed the malware. </p>
<p>This allowed the hackers to use those accounts to purchase items from the iOS App Store for somebody else’s use. The malware could also be used to hold a phone to ransom, or steal the information stored in the cloud on the Apple account.</p>
<h2>Whom do you trust?</h2>
<p>As a user, I find Apple’s attitude that it is the ultimate arbiter of what’s appropriate for me to do with my device somewhat irritating. But this policy has also been very effective at keeping malware out of the iOS ecosystem, all without the need for consumers to invest in additional anti-malware software.</p>
<p>Outside the iOS jail, the burden of keeping malware off one’s phone falls entirely to the user and their judgement. It’s a virtual Wild West, replete with outlaws looking to exploit the unwary.</p>
<p>While I sympathise with Chinese users burdened with inefficient native language input, for most of us it’s hard to see that “cool” animations and other non-authorised apps are worth the risk of malware infection.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/47032/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Merkel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Jailbreaking your iOS device can free you from Apple’s ‘walled garden’, but it’s a Wild West beyond the walls.Robert Merkel, Lecturer in Software Engineering, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/448752015-07-21T11:17:16Z2015-07-21T11:17:16ZChildren at risk of extremism could fall through growing gaps in school system<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89161/original/image-20150721-24261-15134ud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Keeping an eye on who's gone missing. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Empty classroom via wavebreakmedia/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>With preventing young people from being radicalised <a href="https://theconversation.com/britain-seeks-to-understand-why-some-muslims-migrate-to-islamic-state-44395">high on the new Conservative government’s agenda</a>, much attention is being directed towards schools’ role in <a href="https://theconversation.com/teachers-on-the-frontline-against-terror-what-should-schools-do-about-radicalisation-43942">combatting it</a>. But there are concerns that recent changes to the structure of the education system may have created gaps which have reduced the capacity of schools and local authorities to do this. </p>
<p>Ofsted’s chief inspector of schools, Michael Wilshaw, has <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/444746/Advice_letter_from_HMCI_on_the_latest_position_with_schools_in_Birmingham_and_Tower_Hamlets.pdf">written</a> to the education secretary, Nicky Morgan, highlighting what he described as a “serious safeguarding issue” discovered during the ongoing monitoring of schools in <a href="https://theconversation.com/trojan-horse-plot-exposed-a-fragmented-education-system-35583">Birmingham and Tower Hamlets</a> where there were concerns that children had not been protected from extreme Islamist ideology. </p>
<p>The issue was the potentially high numbers of pupils whose names had been deleted from school registers following the fallout from the so-called “Trojan Horse” scandal, without the schools or their local authorities knowing where the pupils had gone. <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-33520643">According to reports in the BBC,</a> unannounced inspections of 14 schools in Birmingham and Tower Hamlets revealed that over 1,000 pupils moved from these schools between September 2013 and June 2015. The pupil’s destination was not clearly recorded in over 350 of these cases, which indicates the scale of the issue.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89166/original/image-20150721-24295-18tu2gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89166/original/image-20150721-24295-18tu2gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=645&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89166/original/image-20150721-24295-18tu2gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=645&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89166/original/image-20150721-24295-18tu2gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=645&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89166/original/image-20150721-24295-18tu2gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=811&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89166/original/image-20150721-24295-18tu2gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=811&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89166/original/image-20150721-24295-18tu2gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=811&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Registering those who don’t come back.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Roll call via B Calkins/www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Wilshaw said that although schools and local authorities were mainly complying with their statutory duties, inspectors found that recording and reporting cases of children being removed from school were inconsistent. There was poor communication and coordination between schools and local authorities on individual cases – and systems for identifying and tracking pupils who leave independent schools (which include academies and free schools in some government definitions) were inadequate.</p>
<h2>Local authorities don’t have all the tools</h2>
<p>So where does responsibility for these children and young people lie, especially given the increasing numbers of academies and free schools outside of local authority control? </p>
<p>Most of the government’s guidance on safeguarding children focuses on issues which occur when a pupil is still on a school’s register. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/395138/Children_missing_education_Statutory_guidance_for_local_authorities.pdf">Children Missing Education</a>, the statutory guidance for local authorities when pupils disappear, places the responsibility on local authorities for ensuring that children moving between schools or local authority areas remain in the system. </p>
<p>The rather vague guidance states that local authorities should check with each other and “share information in order to ascertain where a child has moved”. They should also “raise awareness of their procedures” with agencies working with children and their families, including the UK Border Agency and HMRC, so that they can help trace children who go missing. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/school-to-school-service-how-to-transfer-information">School to school</a> (S2S), a secure internet system, is available to transfer pupil information between authorities. However, as Wilshaw highlighted, current regulations do not require schools or local authorities to record or check the onward destination of pupils who go missing. He suggests that this makes it difficult to determine whether any of these children are at risk of “harm, exploitation or the influence of extremist ideologies” and recommends that the regulations be strengthened to clarify the responsibilities of schools and local authorities when children and young people go missing.</p>
<h2>A deeper issue</h2>
<p>The Department for Education has <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-33520643">said in response</a> that it will strengthen the guidance and amend the regulations about the information a school has to collect when a pupil is taken off its register. However, there is a deeper issue here, which goes to the heart of school governance in what is an increasingly fragmented education system in England. </p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmselect/cmpubacc/735/735.pdf">report on school oversight and intervention</a> by parliament’s Public Accounts Committee report in January 2015 found that: “lack of clarity in the Department’s guidance has contributed to a situation where some local authorities do not understand their safeguarding duties towards pupils in academies”. </p>
<p>This was echoed in March by a <a href="http://www.parliament.uk/academies-and-free-schools%20http://www.parliament.uk/academies-and-free-schools">report on academies and free schools</a> from parliament’s Education Committee, which attributed the reluctance of local authorities to monitor safeguarding in academies to “the very strong messages that have been sent to local authorities more generally about not overseeing and meddling in academies”. </p>
<p>This reluctance is unlikely to decrease, particularly as the number of schools opting to become academies increases, or if those that are identified as a <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-a-coasting-school-41993">“coasting school”</a> are potentially forced to become one. At the same time, expenditure cuts have <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/5fcbd0c4-2948-11e5-8db8-c033edba8a6e.html#axzz3gWLAOOvt">affected the capacity of local authorities</a> to monitor a range of areas, including child safeguarding. </p>
<p>Wilshaw may be right to argue for clearer regulations and to use the “Trojan Horse” affair and associated fears about extremism to highlight the issue of children and young people going missing. </p>
<p>Of course, there is no evidence yet that indicates that any of the 350 children missing from school registers in Birmingham or Tower Hamlets are either at risk or indicators of a larger problem. So whether, given their reduced capacity and resources, tighter regulations will enable local authorities to find out remains open to question.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44875/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Jopling does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There is no consistent system for recording and reporting children who are removed from school registers.Michael Jopling, Professor in Education, Department of Education and Lifelong Learning, Northumbria University, NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/391022015-03-20T16:16:48Z2015-03-20T16:16:48ZThe spectre of ‘British values’ and education policy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75502/original/image-20150320-14639-147pfmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Teaching children to uphold British values is at the head of parties' agenda.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Boy with Union Jack cap via Funny Solution Studio/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/ofsteds-future-at-stake-after-trojan-horse-scandal-25936">Trojan Horse affair</a> in Birmingham schools last year has left an indelible mark on the education system and the ensuing debate on the need for schools to uphold “British values” has infused parties’ proposals for education. This is despite a <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmselect/cmeduc/473/47302.htm">final report</a> into the affair by the House of Commons education committee which concluded that apart from one incident, no evidence of extremism or radicalisation was found in any of the schools involved and there was “no evidence of a sustained plot”. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/guidance-on-promoting-british-values-in-schools-published">Guidelines for schools</a> on embedding British values were introduced in November 2014 and were designed to: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Tighten up the standards on pupil welfare to improve safeguarding and on spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils to strengthen the barriers to extremism.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These guidelines were also an attempt to shore up a national identity at a time of increasing threats from fundamentalism. But the move has caused anger in religious schools such as St Benedict’s Catholic Secondary School in Bury St Edmunds, which <a href="http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2015/02/03/catholic-school-downgraded-by-ofsted-named-one-of-the-best-in-britain/">was downgraded</a> by the schools’ inspectorate Ofsted last year for failing to prepare students for life in modern Britain.</p>
<h2>Conservative backlash</h2>
<p>The whole idea of British values may have been conceived by the former Conservative secretary of state for education, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/jun/20/what-do-michael-goves-new-rules-on-british-values-mean-for-schools">Michael Gove</a>, but feelings in his party on the issue are running high. Edward Leigh, Conservative MP for Gainsborough, <a href="http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/tory-mp-attacks-ofsted-inspections-8864568">recently argued in the House of Commons</a> that Ofsted was waging a war against faith schools with the policy, citing the recent <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/feb/25/durham-free-school-to-close-education-secretary">announcement to close</a> the Christian-ethos Durham Free School. </p>
<p>This tension between nationalism and faith places the Conservatives in an uncomfortable position. Although the party has declared its intention to <a href="http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/education-31791485">forge ahead with the expansion</a> of its academy and free schools programmes (many of which will presumably be faith-based), it has vacillated in its support of Ofsted in a number of areas, including the policing of British values. </p>
<p>The Conservatives have been seemingly content to use the inspection system to drive their academy and free school programme, by enjoining schools judged to be weak to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2014/feb/11/schools-resisting-academy-status-forced-conversion">become academies</a>, yet also reluctant to allow it to perform thorough inspections of academy chains. Recent developments have moved the inspectorate a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-30952906">little closer to doing this</a>, but Ofsted still has to stop <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/11179995/Nicky-Morgan-clashes-with-Ofsted-chief-over-academies.html">short of offering an actual judgement</a> on the overall performance of multi-academy trusts. </p>
<h2>Diverging views</h2>
<p>Meanwhile, UKIP has specifically mentioned British values in its proposals for education, <a href="http://www.ukip.org/policies_for_people">stating</a>: “UKIP supports the principle of free schools that are open to the whole community and uphold British values.” This infers that those schools found to be lacking in this area would not be supported. UKIP also states that parents and governors would have the power to trigger snap inspections, potentially exacerbating Ofsted’s already contentious role in this issue. </p>
<p>In contrast, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/12/school-inspections-political-meddling-gove-ofsted">Labour’s Tristram Hunt</a>, writing in The Observer, described British values as a ministerial fad and announced Labour’s intention to reform and de-politicise Ofsted. </p>
<p>The Liberal Democrats have spoken out on a number of occasions about their concern in labelling values as specifically British. In an interview last June with The Independent, its leader <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nick-clegg-teaching-british-values-in-schools-could-upset-moderate-muslims-9552742.html">Nick Clegg</a> expressed concern that imposing British values in schools could alienate moderate Muslims. But since then the whole issue surrounding British values has not been confined to those holding Muslim beliefs but has been the subject of heated discussion <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/11292905/Catholics-demand-apology-after-Ofsted-makes-unsubstantiated-extremism-claim-against-school.html">within a number of other faith groups too.</a> </p>
<p><a href="http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/ed.html">The Green Party</a> talks in terms of human values rather than British ones but firmly declares that, “no publicly funded schools shall be run by a religious organisation” and that “privately run schools run by religious organisations must reflect the inclusive nature of British society.” It also states that faith schools will not be allowed to opt out of equality and diversity legislation, nor will they be allowed to promote homophobia or transphobia on the grounds of religion. </p>
<p>The Greens are also proposing that Ofsted be dismantled and replaced by a local system of accountability shared between each local authority and a new National Council of Educational Excellence. <a href="https://news.tes.co.uk/b/news/2015/02/16/scrap-ofsted-and-the-national-curriculum-says-green-party.aspx">Speaking to the TES</a> in February, Green leader Natalie Bennett argued that Ofsted has become very damaging and that parachuting inspectors in every few years was not an appropriate form of accountability.</p>
<h2>Governance issues</h2>
<p>It is somewhat ironic that the incident that initiated the whole issue around British values and their promotion in education is not only widely viewed as a hoax, but also rooted not in extremism but in <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmselect/cmeduc/473/47302.htm">inadequate governance and oversight</a>. </p>
<p>Debates around incorporation of the policing of British values into the inspection schedule, Ofsted’s heavy-handed approach in policing them and the conflation of the whole idea of British values with the fight against extremism, are not going to disappear overnight. Nor are the accusations that what began as a failure of governance in 21 Birmingham schools has since been used to downgrade and close many others. </p>
<p>In considering any future policies on accountability and oversight, the next government will have to think very carefully about what is to be done with the spectre of British values or wake up with a severe post-election hangover from the last administration’s policies.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39102/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The Trojan Horse affair in Birmingham schools last year has left an indelible mark on the education system and the ensuing debate on the need for schools to uphold “British values” has infused parties…Jacqueline Baxter, Lecturer in Social Policy, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/355832014-12-31T08:56:01Z2014-12-31T08:56:01ZTrojan Horse ‘plot’ exposed a fragmented education system<p>Any review of 2014 in education must examine a Trojan Horse bearing “British values”. The scandal that broke in April centred on the investigation of 21 Birmingham schools suspected of being involved in a plot to “<a href="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewgilligan/100268346/trojan-horse-schools-the-leaked-inspectors-report/">Islamise</a>” their children’s education. It was followed in November by <a href="https://theconversation.com/debate-over-national-values-is-a-threat-to-the-education-system-34635">the inspection</a> of seven schools in Tower Hamlets, which were also held to be at risk of Islamic radicalisation. </p>
<p>The inspections and investigations in Birmingham and Tower Hamlets did not uncover widespread extremism or radicalisation in schools, although they did find failures of governance and in some cases a reluctance to promote the rather ill-defined notion <a href="https://theconversation.com/promoting-british-values-opens-up-a-can-of-worms-for-teachers-27846">of British values</a>. The fallout from the investigations, after which a number of schools were put into “special measures” has revealed how increasingly fragmented the school landscape in England is in the run-up to the general election in 2015. </p>
<h2>Limitations of autonomy</h2>
<p>The supposed Trojan Horse “plot” has been examined extensively in relation to its implications for <a href="http://theconversation.com/ofsteds-future-at-stake-after-trojan-horse-scandal-25936">Ofsted</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/how-schools-have-been-pushed-to-front-in-preventing-extremism-34513">schools’ role in preventing terrorism</a> and <a href="http://theconversation.com/trojan-horse-snap-school-inspections-will-not-solve-wider-governance-issues-27824">school governance</a>. </p>
<p>In the recently published <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ofsted-annual-report-201314-published">Annual Ofsted Report 2013-14</a>, the West Midlands regional report states that in several of the 21 schools inspected in Birmingham, children are “being badly prepared for life in modern Britain”. It concludes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The issues identified in Birmingham remain a significant concern. These inspections have called into question the nature and extent of the accountabilities associated with the high levels of autonomy currently enjoyed by academies. They also raise concerns about the effectiveness of the local authority to hold schools and governing bodies to account.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The final sentence is revealing. The concerns about the effectiveness of Birmingham as a local authority mask the fact that since 2010 local authorities’ capacity to hold schools and governing bodies to account has been severely curtailed – precisely because academies have been given such autonomy.</p>
<p>One of the priorities outlined in the 2010 Schools White Paper, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-importance-of-teaching-the-schools-white-paper-2010">The Importance of Teaching</a>, published by the Coalition was to create a “self-improving system”. Central to this ambition was the rapid expansion of the academies programme. </p>
<p>There were 203 academies in England in 2010. There are <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-academies-and-academy-projects-in-development">4,344 today</a>. Both academies and free schools, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/free-schools-open-schools-and-successful-applications">252 of which have opened</a> since 2010, are independent of local authority control and directly accountable to the secretary of state for education. Coupled with extensive public sector funding cuts, the result has been a drastic reduction in both local authority capacity and local oversight of schools. </p>
<h2>Where the blame gets laid</h2>
<p>As a result, we have an increasingly complex and fragmented school landscape, in which new <a href="https://theconversation.com/failing-academy-chains-highlight-hole-at-heart-of-education-policy-23954">“middle-tier” structures</a> and organisations, such as academy chains and teaching school alliances, have emerged to fill the vacuum between local schools and the Department for Education. Many of these may work well, but when things appear to go wrong, as in Birmingham and Tower Hamlets, the focus of national government, Ofsted and the media remains on the local authority, rather than on <a href="https://theconversation.com/pupils-at-academy-chains-being-failed-by-inspection-loophole-31584">academy chains, which are rather more difficult to hold to account</a>.</p>
<p>Six of the Birmingham schools and all those in Tower Hamlets were put into special measures after the inspections. But only one of the schools in each place is maintained by local authorities – the remaining schools in Birmingham are academies and independent Muslim schools in Tower Hamlets, outside of local authority control.</p>
<p>Considerable work is now needed to rebuild trust in both local schools and national government in these communities. Analaysis by <a href="https://birminghamcase.wordpress.com/2014/08/31/the-trojan-horse-affair-and-its-consequences-a-response-from-birmingham-case/">Birmingham Campaign for State Education</a> has shown that this has been made more difficult in Birmingham by the fact that many of the recommendations of the <a href="http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/trojanhorsereview">independent review</a> Birmingham City Council commissioned into the affair cannot be implemented because it has no authority over academies. As <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/jun/17/trojan-horse-affair-five-lessons-help-schools">Tim Brighouse</a>, former chief education officer in Birmingham, emphasised in June:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>So great have been the recent cuts in local authority expenditure that Birmingham and many other local authorities have neither the resources nor sufficient senior and experienced staff to carry out their role effectively. Worse, the arrival of academies and free schools has created an open season for lay people and professionals keen to pursue their own eccentric ideas about schooling.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is not uncommon. A recent <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/325816/DFE-RR359.pdf">“temperature check”</a> of local authorities revealed that they have had some success overcoming funding and staffing cuts in education by brokering local partnerships to support school improvement and planning for fluctuations in the number of school spaces needed. But authorities were rather less advanced in other key areas, such as supporting vulnerable children. The point is not that local authorities have always been highly effective, but that in the absence of other local structures, they should not be held accountable when they no longer have the power or capacity to act.</p>
<h2>Political positioning</h2>
<p>What does this mean for the future? As we move towards an increasingly uncertain election in 2015, Conservative party policy seems to promise more of the same for the increasingly fragmented middle tier. The current secretary of state for education, Nicky Morgan, has <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/nicky-morgan-speaks-about-our-plan-for-education">spoken recently of her commitment</a> to the “self-improving, school-led system”, characterised by bottom-up innovations coming from “networks of schools and teachers collaborating with one another to drive up standards”. As the Trojan horse incidents underline, rhetoric about localism continues to mask the increasing centralisation of power. </p>
<p>Labour’s recent policy document, <a href="http://www.yourbritain.org.uk/agenda-2015/policy-commissions/education-and-children-policy-commission/education-and-children-policy-consultation">Education and Children</a>, takes the fragmented schools system as a starting point to emphasise the need for “strong local accountability”. But while it advocates incentives for effective partnerships between schools, there is no indication of how the multi-layered local levels of trust necessary to support effective school-to-school collaboration will be created. Nor how the academies programme, to <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/best-schools-would-still-be-able-to-convert-to-academies-under-labour-says-tristram-hunt-9802257.html">which Labour remains committed</a>, will be overseen.</p>
<p>Add into the mix the unpredictability of smaller parties’ influence if the outcome of the election is inconclusive, and the future looks just as uncertain and fragmented as today. Without locally accountable structures to support and challenge schools, moral panics, like those we have seen in Birmingham and Tower Hamlets in 2014, are likely to recur.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>To read more of The Conversation’s coverage on the Trojan Horse affair from 2014, <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/trojan-horse">click here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35583/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Jopling does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Any review of 2014 in education must examine a Trojan Horse bearing “British values”. The scandal that broke in April centred on the investigation of 21 Birmingham schools suspected of being involved in…Michael Jopling, Professor in Education, Department of Education and Lifelong Learning, Northumbria University, NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/346352014-11-25T15:49:03Z2014-11-25T15:49:03ZDebate over national values is a threat to the education system<p>The <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/nov/21/ofsted-muslim-schools-london-closure-threat">results of seven school inspections</a> in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets have brought a fresh wave of allegations that some schools are not providing a broad and balanced curriculum for their pupils, who may be vulnerable to radicalisation. A <a href="http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/advice-note-her-majestys-chief-inspector-sir-michael-wilshaw-secretary-of-state-for-education-rt-hon">memorandum on the inspections</a> sent by Ofsted’s chief inspector of schools Michael Wilshaw to the education secretary Nicky Morgan has upped the ante in debates that conflate conservative religious values with the risk of radicalisation and extremism. </p>
<p>In six independent schools that were visited in the borough, inspectors found serious concerns over the safeguarding and welfare of pupils, lack of provision of a broad and balanced curriculum and issues around leadership, management and teaching. </p>
<p>Four of the <a href="http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/advice-note-her-majestys-chief-inspector-sir-michael-wilshaw-secretary-of-state-for-education-rt-hon">six independent Muslim schools have been judged</a> inadequate, with two failing to meet independent school standards. The only <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/nov/20/church-england-school-john-cass-ofsted-downgraded-extremism">maintained school involved in the recent inspections</a>, Sir John Cass in Stepney, was also downgraded by Ofsted from outstanding to inadequate. This followed concerns about segregation between boys and girls in school areas and insufficient guidance on “the dangers associated with using the internet, particularly in relation to extremist views”. </p>
<h2>The ‘British values’ minefield</h2>
<p>Kenny Frederick, a former school leader in Tower Hamlets, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/nov/20/church-england-school-john-cass-ofsted-downgraded-extremism">articulated concerns</a> that resonate with those also voiced <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/oct/14/jewish-schools-complain-ofsted-inspections">in Jewish communities</a> that have been subject to similar inspections. Frederick said that putting a school in special measures “will only be negative” for a school and its community. “People will feel resentful. All we are going to do is alienate. If I was one of the kids, it would not be doing anything for my British values.” </p>
<p>The whole area surrounding “British values”, schools and religion has been thrown into confusion since the <a href="http://www.insted.co.uk/trojan-horse.pdf">Birmingham “Trojan Horse” affair</a> over allegations of a takeover of school board by hardline Muslim governors. The Muslim community is not unique in stating that the subsequent introduction of a responsibility for schools to promote “British values” and the apparent conflation of religious conservatism with extremism by both government and media is riddled with ideological and political complexities.</p>
<p>For example, Nigel Genders, <a href="http://www.christian.org.uk/news/c-of-e-new-school-standards-are-dangerous-and-divisive/">speaking on behalf of the Church of England</a>, raised serious concerns during the recent consultation into the Proposed New Independent Schools Standards in July. <a href="https://staging.churchofengland.org/media/2112859/140730independentschoolsbritishvaluesconsultationcofe.pdf">His response </a>agreed that: “There is a legitimate exploration to be undertaken of values in the context of our distinctive national culture, literature, legal and political systems.” But he added that “many of those values cannot be defined as uniquely British”. He continued by highlighting the church’s concerns that the “British values should emanate from a broad public conversation,not from the secretary of state”.</p>
<h2>Schools and culture</h2>
<p>The apparent appropriation of values by the state is a worrying trend. More worrying still is how Ofsted is being used to police these values – particularly as they have yet to be fully defined. A recent Ofsted report following a snap inspection at the <a href="http://www.st-benedicts.suffolk.sch.uk/">St Benedict’s Catholic secondary school</a> in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, claimed that younger pupils “show less awareness of the dangers of extremism and radicalisation”.</p>
<p>The report, which was withdrawn very soon after its publication, went on to question whether the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/nov/14/ofsted-british-values-suffolk-school-bury-st-edmunds">school prepared pupils “for life and work in modern Britain</a>”. It was apparently withdrawn due to concerns around quality – a little too late for those who had already seen the <a href="http://www.buryfreepress.co.uk/news/local/latest-news/breaking-ofsted-tells-bury-st-edmunds-school-to-withdraw-shock-report-1-6337061">report posted on the schools website</a>.</p>
<h2>The new values police</h2>
<p>The present guidance given to inspectors on how to spot a “British value” is scant to say the least. The 2014 revised <a href="http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/school-inspection-handbook">school inspection handbook</a> contains four references to values which link to curriculum and safeguarding, the most specific of which are articulated in terms of the social development of pupils. </p>
<p>School governors are also instrumental in the whole area of values. The extent to which they are expected to define and be conversant with values at every level of school life is outlined in detail on the <a href="http://www.nga.org.uk/Home.aspx">National Governors Association website</a>. But the question of how all of these areas will be effectively investigated by the inspectorate and then translated into a tangible threat of radicalisation and extremism remains a very grey area indeed.</p>
<p>Again the issue of British values is making life difficult for governors, as <a href="https://governingmatters.wordpress.com/">Naureen Khalid</a>, school governor and co-founder of @ukgovchat told me. She said: “I personally think in terms of human values. As long as my school promotes these, I’m happy.”</p>
<p>As director of the Universities’ Police Science Institute in Cardiff, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-schools-have-been-pushed-to-front-in-preventing-extremism-34513">Martin Innes points out</a> that there is a distinct lack of knowledge – not only around what works in preventing extremism, but equally how we can effectively identify real triggers. He also brings home the dangers of branding schools and their communities with extremist labels, quoting the steady decline in Muslims between the ages of 16 and 24 who feel that police treat them fairly.</p>
<h2>Trust eroding</h2>
<p>The announcement by the home secretary, Teresa May, on the intention to include new statutory powers to prevent individuals being drawn into terrorism within the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/nov/24/uk-terrorism-measures-campus-ban-extremists-theresa-may">Channel anti-radicalisation programme</a>, looks likely to place increasing levels of pressure on governors, school leaders and inspectors. But they are already working in communities where levels of trust in public bodies appears to be reaching an all time low.</p>
<p>Of course, it is vitally important to prevent terrorism, but the present system risks undermining hard-won community cohesion. It also risks transforming schools from being trusted institutions at the heart of their communities into organisations undermined by suspicion, doubt and a panoptecon-like scrutiny. This is more likely to give rise to the very activities that both government and inspectorate are so eager to expunge. </p>
<p>To avoid this, as the Church of England’s Genders points out, we need a public debate about the human values that form the core of our society. Until this happens, the grey area around these “British values” is open to mis-interpretation, political manipulation and false assumptions. That may well cause repercussions which could fundamentally undermine our system of education.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/34635/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The results of seven school inspections in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets have brought a fresh wave of allegations that some schools are not providing a broad and balanced curriculum for their pupils…Jacqueline Baxter, Lecturer in Social Policy, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/345132014-11-21T16:59:08Z2014-11-21T16:59:08ZHow schools have been pushed to front in preventing extremism<p>The chief inspector of schools’ intervention into the running of seven London schools shines a light onto several emerging developments in the Prevent strategy for countering violent extremism. Michael Wilshaw, head of Ofsted, identified that in <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-30129645">six independent Muslim</a> faith schools in Tower Hamlets, pupils may be vulnerable to “extremist influences and radicalisation”. In a seventh school, the <a href="http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report/provider/ELS/100977">Sir John Cass Foundation and Redcoat secondary school</a>, insufficient responses were made to social media after an student Islamic society Facebook group posted links to extremist viewpoints.</p>
<p>Following similar allegations made recently about schools in Birmingham, known as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/ofsteds-future-at-stake-after-trojan-horse-scandal-25936">“Trojan Horse” affair</a>, it is becoming clear that the education sector is being forced on to the “frontline” for tackling extremism. </p>
<p>This is a trajectory of development that can be traced back to the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/protecting-the-uk-against-terrorism">review of the Prevent Strategy</a> commissioned by the Coalition government in 2010. This review sought to “refresh” Prevent and to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prevent-strategy-2011">re-orientate it</a> in several important ways. Especially significant was a move to lessen the emphasis on and investment in “grassroots” community-based interventions. Instead, all statutory agencies were to be required to perform more of the work in identifying individuals at risk of radicalisation and delivering interventions to mitigate these risks. </p>
<p>This shift in strategic intent was made by the home secretary, Theresa May, in her foreword to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/97976/prevent-strategy-review.pdf">the Prevent review</a> where she stated:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We will work with sectors and institutions where there are risks of radicalisation. Here, progress has been made in recent years, but it is patchy and must be better. So we will work with education and healthcare providers, faith groups, charities and the wider criminal justice system.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Since 2011, the delivery of Prevent has had an increased emphasis upon partnerships spanning many agencies. But this has coincided with nearly all the agencies involved having their funding cut. At just the same time as their remit for countering extremism was widened, many local roles and posts have been “deleted” and services withdrawn.</p>
<h2>Practical problems for Prevent</h2>
<p>The key limitation of the Prevent review was not that it failed to forecast spending reductions. But while its strategic aims and desired changes were clear, it provided far less clarity about how Prevent should be delivered in practical terms. This remains a key concern and is relevant to both its “counter-radicalisation” and “deradicalisation” strands. The former focuses upon stopping people from being exposed to extremist ideologies and narratives. The latter component is concerned principally with what to do about individuals and groups who have already engaged with such ideas.</p>
<p>This limitation is compounded by the lack of a robust evidence base about what works in terms of preventing violent extremism. So while particular schools may be being sanctioned by Ofsted, this glosses a more profound and far-reaching question about how much of what is currently done under the auspices of the Prevent strategy is actually impacting upon the problem? </p>
<p>The limited public data on the performance of Prevent available suggests that, at best, it is “stemming the flow”. For example, <a href="http://www.acpo.police.uk/ACPOBusinessAreas/PREVENT/NationalChannelReferralFigures.aspx">data published</a> by the Association of Chief Police Officers identifies that between April 2007 and the end of March 2014, 3,934 individuals were referred to the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/97976/prevent-strategy-review.pdf">Channel process</a> by police and statutory agencies. Channel is an intensive programme seeking to intervene with people assessed as being vulnerable to being radicalised. </p>
<p>Of those initially referred to Channel over this period, 1,450 were aged under 18. The police note that about 20% of individuals were assessed as requiring formal intervention programmes. But the really interesting statistic is that the number of referrals more than doubled from 599 in 2011-12 to 1,281 in 2013-14. </p>
<h2>Mistrust of police growing</h2>
<p>More concerning data about progress can be distilled from the <a href="http://www.crimesurvey.co.uk/">Crime Survey for England and Wales</a>. For example, the figure below shows how the proportion of respondents self-identifying as Muslim between the ages of 16 and 24 who think that the police treat them fairly has declined over the past few years. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65216/original/image-20141121-1052-htkowc.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65216/original/image-20141121-1052-htkowc.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65216/original/image-20141121-1052-htkowc.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65216/original/image-20141121-1052-htkowc.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65216/original/image-20141121-1052-htkowc.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65216/original/image-20141121-1052-htkowc.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65216/original/image-20141121-1052-htkowc.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Percentage of young Muslim people saying that the police treat them fairly, by gender.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Crime Survey for England and Wales</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The red line shows that the proportion of young males who think the police treat them fairly dipped sharply in 2011. Although this recovered the following year, the overall trajectory is down. The data for young Muslim women (blue line) show a steady year-on-year decline. It is worth stating that Muslims on average generally start from a higher base-level of trust and confidence in the police, but nevertheless the negative trend is worrying in the current context.</p>
<h2>Moving Prevent upstream</h2>
<p>Undoubtedly there are many successes behind such statistical data, but in an environment where resources available to invest are reducing, understanding what works and what doesn’t is vital for reasons of effectiveness and efficiency. The increased attention being paid to schools suggests a general movement to try and move Prevent activity “upstream” to an earlier point than it has been before, but doing so is undoubtedly contentious. </p>
<p>To warrant such a shift, far greater clarity is required about precisely what problem needs to be solved. Under previous iterations of the Prevent strategy, the focus has principally been upon intercepting the potential for violent extremism. In moving upstream, we may be observing the government shaping up for a more concerted engagement with the problem of non-violent extremism. </p>
<h2>Need for public debate</h2>
<p>This is dangerous and difficult territory and may require considerable public deliberation. After all, there are questions over what are the appropriate constraints upon government action against individuals and groups who are expressing views that are offensive, but not necessarily directly harmful. And society needs to decide on whether there is scope is there for lawful action against people whose behaviour is unpleasant, but not necessarily illegal. These are challenging and complex issues. </p>
<p>All plausible theories of the social dynamics and mechanics of terrorist campaigns identify a role for “soft support” – a constituency of opinion, on whose behalf violence can be “righteously” performed. </p>
<p>In her <a href="http://www.randomhouse.com/book/153951/what-terrorists-want-by-louise-richardson">synthesis of research</a> on terrorist groups, political scientist Louise Richardson labels this a “conducive surround” – a wider environment or context that is perceived as enabling by those willing to commit violence in pursuit of a political aspiration. But precisely how this conducive surround and the soft support of extremist ideologies can be influenced and degraded currently remains unresolved.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/34513/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martin Innes receives funding from the ESRC, European Commission, NESTA and South Wales Police.</span></em></p>The chief inspector of schools’ intervention into the running of seven London schools shines a light onto several emerging developments in the Prevent strategy for countering violent extremism. Michael…Martin Innes, Director, Universities' Police Science Institute, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/322392014-10-15T05:24:13Z2014-10-15T05:24:13ZHow Muslim faith schools are teaching tolerance and respect through ‘Islamicised’ curriculum<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/shadow-of-extremism-scandal-lingers-as-birmingham-goes-back-to-school-31028">Trojan Horse extremism affair</a> that hit a group of Birmingham schools this summer and the ongoing <a href="http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/education-committee/news/extremism-in-schools-3/">inquiries</a> into it, have raised suspicions <a href="https://theconversation.com/shadow-of-extremism-scandal-lingers-as-birmingham-goes-back-to-school-31028">among Muslim parents</a>, teachers, and pupils in the UK. News from schools inspectorate Ofsted that the action plans put in place at the five Birmingham schools deemed to be failing are still <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-29613448">“not fit for purpose”</a> could raise tensions further. </p>
<p>Peter Clarke, the former head of counter terrorism who was drafted in to investigate the allegations in Birmingham, concluded in <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/340526/HC_576_accessible_-.pdf">his final report</a> that several concerning practices were going on in certain schools, such as the harassment of teachers and bullying of headteachers to impose what is considered as Islamic extremism. He has <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/11157116/Trojan-Horse-just-the-tip-of-the-iceberg.html">recently spoken out to claim</a> that what he found was “just the tip of the iceberg”. </p>
<p>I condemn these practices. Yet I have criticisms of Clarke’s report, stemming from <a href="http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-017-8972-1_34">my body of research</a> on Muslim faith schools in the UK which focused on how these schools socialise Muslim pupils and, in doing so, how such schools “Islamicise” the British national curriculum. </p>
<p>Contrary to Clarke’s report – which helped spark the introduction of new rules on the teaching of <a href="https://theconversation.com/promoting-british-values-opens-up-a-can-of-worms-for-teachers-27846">British values</a> – the Islamicised curriculum I observed in action is aimed at promoting an alignment between national education goals and Muslim belief.</p>
<h2>Teaching at Muslim faith schools</h2>
<p>My research has been primarily based on independent Muslim faith schools, which teach the national curriculum in addition to Islamic subjects, whereas the schools reported to be affected in the Trojan Horse affair were primarily state-funded and secular. </p>
<p>The school where I conducted my main ethnographic study – which is not named due to the ethical and confidential nature of my research and was not in Birmingham – used the national curriculum, and an Islamic and “Islamicised” curricula. </p>
<p>In this particular school, the national curriculum covered 80% of the school’s total teaching. The rest of the teaching was based on the Islamic curriculum and comprised the teaching of Arabic, <em>tajweed</em> (Qur’anic recitation and memorisation), Islamic studies and some <em>Ibadah</em> (worship) sessions. This comprised two and a half hours of teaching per day, accommodated by an extended school day.</p>
<h2>Islamicised curriculum</h2>
<p>An Islamicised curriculum was embedded in the overall teaching at the school. It was apparent in the ways in which teachers tried to blend Islamic education with some aspects of the national curriculum, and in the “Islamic ethos” of the school. </p>
<p>The teachers “Islamicised” lessons to bring in an Islamic interpretation of the topics taught in the national curriculum. For example, while teaching reproduction in a science lesson, one teacher discussed references to embryology in the Qur’an. She cited several verses from the Qur'an – surah 39, verse 6, surah 23 verse 13, 14 – that explained the process of development of an embryo.</p>
<p>I also came across cases where differences exist between Islamic and national curriculum perspectives, for example evolution and creationism. Teachers taught such topics by discussing the contrasting perspectives and expected students to reflect on both. </p>
<p>Prayers were compulsory. The school building was covered with Islamic displays and Muslim women did not shake hands with men. Talks in the assemblies strengthened messages of general Muslim brotherhood, in the context of extending support to those in war or crisis-stricken countries.</p>
<p>Of course, the above practices are not expected to take place to this level in non-faith schools and I condemn that they were imposed by force in some state schools which have a non-faith character in Birmingham. </p>
<h2>Not just ‘hardline Sunnis’</h2>
<p>The Islamicisation of the curriculum in any school is a complex phenomenon. I did not come across a single understanding of what “Islamising” or “Islamicising” a curriculum meant, with opinion varying across schools and even between parents, pupils and teachers within the same schools. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, in his report Clarke considers many aspects of this Islamicisation as stemming from one “hardline strand of Sunni Islam”. His inquiry lacked some basic understanding of Islam and could have benefitted from including a representative with more knowledge of the faith. Many of the practices that he regards as conservative strands of Sunni Islam are widely accepted and practiced in most Islamic schools of thought – Sunni or non-Sunni – and are seen as necessary to maintain the Islamic values of tolerance and respect. </p>
<p>Muslim women are not expected to shake hands with men in Shia strands either. The segregation of boys and girls in swimming lessons is not only a preference of Sunnis but is actually a provision in most (non-Muslim) faith schools and many secular schools as well. Sex and relationship education has been an issue for most, if not all Muslim parents, both conservative and non-conservative. </p>
<h2>Dissatisfied parents</h2>
<p>My research has shown that the emergence of Muslim faith schools is a result of dissatisfaction among Muslim parents. They felt local schools would not meet their children’s educational needs or provide structures and facilities to enable them to meet their religious obligations. </p>
<p>Much research has found that Muslim children consistently <a href="http://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/the-infidel-within/">underachieved in state schools</a>, face <a href="http://www.palgraveconnect.com/pc/doifinder/10.1057/9780230005501">racism</a>, and encounter difficulties in meeting their religious obligations. </p>
<p>This concern has been reflected when Muslims in cities with a high population concentration (including Birmingham), have requested that secular state schools where Muslim children are in a majority be converted into state-funded Muslim faith schools. </p>
<p>The other route has been to set up independent Muslim schools and apply for state-funding. So far <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/maintained-faith-schools">only 11 Muslim faith schools</a> have been able to secure state-funding. The school where I conducted my main research applied for state funding but the request was turned down. In addition, in 2013 it was revealed that only <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/jun/28/christian-faith-schools-islamic-hindu">one in five applications</a> to set up Muslim free schools had been approved. </p>
<p>In my view, if parents want their children to be state-educated but attend a faith school, more should be given that choice. The curriculum that I observed in a Muslim faith school does not seem to conflict with the norms of mainstream education. Instead, it presents an example of how coherence and alignment can be achieved between key national priorities in education and the identity and beliefs of Muslim groups. It clearly presents an example of an educational practice that can be used to build the values of tolerance and respect – which are very much at the centre of Sunni Islam.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32239/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sadaf Rizvi received funding for her doctoral studies from the Aga Khan Foundation, Geneva. </span></em></p>The Trojan Horse extremism affair that hit a group of Birmingham schools this summer and the ongoing inquiries into it, have raised suspicions among Muslim parents, teachers, and pupils in the UK. News…Sadaf Rizvi, Associate lecturer, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/310282014-09-01T05:09:07Z2014-09-01T05:09:07ZShadow of extremism scandal lingers as Birmingham goes back to school<p>If a week is a long time in politics, then the school summer holidays must have seemed like a lifetime the for governors, teachers, pupils and staff at the <a href="http://theconversation.com/operation-trojan-horse-examining-the-islamic-takeover-of-birmingham-schools-25764">21 schools at the centre</a> of the Trojan Horse plot in Birmingham. </p>
<p>Allegations made in an anonymous letter – now widely <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/mar/13/alleged-islamic-plot-birmingham-schools-possible-hoax">thought to be a hoax</a> – surfaced in March of a “plot” to overthrow existing teachers and governors in non-faith state schools as a means of replacing them with “Islam-friendly” individuals prepared to run the schools in accordance with conservative Islamic principles. In response, the 21 schools were subjected to what can only be described as unprecedented levels of public and <a href="http://theconversation.com/birmingham-has-most-to-lose-from-gove-may-extremism-row-27650">political scrutiny</a>.</p>
<p>While the summer holidays provided some respite – not least because the allegations have finally begun to disappear from the public gaze – the spectre of Trojan Horse will once more raise its ugly head as schools go back across Birmingham. The new academic year will see staff, pupils and parents beginning the process of dealing with the fallout from the allegations.</p>
<h2>Impact on parents and pupils</h2>
<p>In a handful of schools, <a href="https://theconversation.com/trojan-horse-snap-school-inspections-will-not-solve-wider-governance-issues-27824">Ofsted investigators</a> raised important concerns about certain aspects of school governance and five were <a href="http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/news/advice-note-provided-academies-and-maintained-schools-birmingham-secretary-of-state-for-education-rt">put into special measures</a>. But given that a number of governors involved have <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/jun/20/saltley-school-governors-resign-ofsted-trojan-horse">already resigned</a> or left their posts, addressing these very clear issues should be relatively unproblematic. </p>
<p>We should not overlook the fact that some of the schools concerned had been transformed from failing to <a href="http://www.channel4.com/news/oldknow-academy-birmingham-schools-trojan-horse-ofsted">outstanding</a> under those same governors. Parents may be supportive of how the schools were being run, thereby raising the possibility of some being unhappy and even unwilling to support the changes required – especially if claims that <a href="http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/trojan-horse-involve-parents-future-7686181">new governors have failed to involve parents</a> are correct. Some might also point to reports that <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-28878927">GCSE results at two of the schools have fallen</a> since the investigations and changes have been made. </p>
<p>There will also be concern among parents about the long-term impact on their children, some fearing that the allegations will detrimentally impact their future job and education opportunities. As the former <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/22/muslims-birmingham-schools-education-nicky-morgan">Birmingham councillor Salma Yaqoob</a> put it: “The impact of this stigma on a whole generation of the city’s Muslim students when applying to universities and jobs cannot be overstated.” </p>
<p>This fear of being seen to be guilty by association – of being an extremist or at least sympathetic to the goals and objectives of extremists – is a real and tangible one, something that will be as relevant to staff at the schools as the pupils.</p>
<h2>Solutions to extremism</h2>
<p>Over the space of a few months, the Trojan Horse allegations became conflated with the wider <a href="http://theconversation.com/birmingham-has-most-to-lose-from-gove-may-extremism-row-27650">issue of tackling extremism</a>. Former prime minister Tony Blair <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10900955/Trojan-Horse-plot-driven-by-same-warped-Islamic-extremism-as-Boko-Harams-says-Tony-Blair.html">suggested</a> the allegations in Birmingham’s schools were directly linked to the kidnapping of <a href="https://theconversation.com/boko-haram-the-terror-group-that-kidnapped-200-schoolgirls-25931">200 girls by Boko Haram</a> militants in Nigeria. </p>
<p>In his <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/340526/HC_576_accessible_-.pdf">report</a> anti-terror chief Peter Clarke, brought in to investigate the allegations in Birmingham on behalf of the Department for Education, said: “I have neither specifically looked for nor found any evidence of terrorism, violent extremism or radicalisation in any of the schools we examined in detail.”</p>
<p>But that same perceived link has again raised its ugly head in relation to the <a href="http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9293762/the-british-beheaders/">growing number of British Muslims</a> going to fight in Syria and Iraq for Islamic State. </p>
<p>Focusing on the threat they might subsequently pose to Britain if and when they might decide to return, some commentators suggested that <a href="http://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/484061/The-Sunday-Express-on-British-children-traffic-wardens-and-Andy-Murray">extremism in British schools</a> is a causal factor in the decision-making of those choosing to fight in the Middle East. </p>
<p>The “<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/11052510/We-must-give-ourselves-all-the-legal-powers-we-need-to-prevail.html">solution</a>” being posited by politicians and commentators alike to this growing challenge is extremely similar to what has been suggested in relation to solving the “problem” in Birmingham’s schools: the need to place a greater emphasis on the teaching of <a href="https://theconversation.com/promoting-british-values-opens-up-a-can-of-worms-for-teachers-27846">“British values”</a> as part of the school curriculum.</p>
<h2>‘Clear message’ to British Muslims</h2>
<p>In spite of the lack of evidence of extremism in Birmingham’s schools, <a href="http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9780754651406">as my research has shown</a>, many in wider society believe that there is “no smoke without fire” when it comes to Muslims and Islam. So it is almost certain that many people in Britain will believe that a culture of extremism exists within Birmingham’s schools, even though there is little to substantiate such claims.</p>
<p>This has a potential impact on all Britain’s Muslims, and it will further add to the weariness that is already apparent in the Birmingham community. Many of the city’s Muslims are still reeling from the impact of the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-13331161">now defunct Project Champion</a> – where more than 200 “spy” cameras were placed around two of the most densely populated Muslim areas in the city. <a href="http://etn.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/07/05/1468796813492488">Research I did with my colleague Arshad Isakjee</a> highlighted that the message from this is that Birmingham’s Muslims are a “suspect community”. </p>
<p>Trojan Horse will only reinforce this further and its shadow will be felt for some time yet. As children across the country return to school for the new academic year, many in Birmingham will be feeling just that little bit more anxious and fraught, increasingly isolated and marginalised. In doing so, the message that they do not belong – not even to the city in which they were born, grew up and continue to live – might just be the very message that the true extremists will want ordinary Muslims in Birmingham and elsewhere to hear.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/31028/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Allen is an independent member of the Coalition Government's Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group. He receives no remuneration for this.</span></em></p>If a week is a long time in politics, then the school summer holidays must have seemed like a lifetime the for governors, teachers, pupils and staff at the 21 schools at the centre of the Trojan Horse…Chris Allen, Lecturer in Social Policy, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/304362014-08-13T11:21:14Z2014-08-13T11:21:14ZTeaching British values to toddlers will be tough to enforce
<p>The <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28700449">recent announcement</a> by the new secretary of state for education Nicky Morgan that toddlers must be taught British values is the latest in a chain of events precipitated by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/birmingham-has-most-to-lose-from-gove-may-extremism-row-27650">Trojan Horse affair over extremism at some schools in Birmingham</a>. </p>
<p>But awareness of equality and diversity issues has been central to early years education for years now. Many early years teachers already underpin their teaching with these values –values that will now be tagged as “officially British”. The big question is how Ofsted, the schools inspectorate, will interpret and police the way these values are taught to toddlers. </p>
<p>Following on from recent changes to <a href="http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/school-inspection-handbook">the School Inspection Handbook</a> – largely instigated following the Trojan Horse affair – the government has launched a consultation into changes to the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/341923/Consultation_Document_-_School_and_Early_Years_Finance__England__Regulations_2014.pdf">school and early years finance regulations</a>. Crucially, this proposes that funding be withdrawn from providers that do not “actively promote fundamental British values”.</p>
<h2>Going over old ground?</h2>
<p>But experts argue that the definition of these values – learning right from wrong, to take turns and sharing – are values that have been fundamental to early years provision for a considerable amount of time. This position was emphasised by Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-School Learning Alliance <a href="http://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/nursery-world/news/1145873/nurseries-teach-children-british-values-lose-funding">in a recent interview</a> on the proposed changes.</p>
<p>This view is also supported by Sue Griffin, former national training manager for the National Childminding Association and author of <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Inclusion_Equality_and_Diversity_in_Work.html?id=aykijn1O6KoC">Inclusion, Equality and Diversity in working with children</a>. She told me, “Early years settings have a lot to teach the education sector and right wing politicians about addressing inclusion, equality and diversity, since practitioners with our youngest children have been exploring these issues for decades.”</p>
<p>She went on to emphasise the need for practitioners “to keep their nerve and carry on in the confidence that they are thinking seriously about practical ways of helping children to develop unprejudiced views and learn to respect and value one another, whatever their differences in ethnicity, culture, family background.”</p>
<h2>What are British values?</h2>
<p>There is little dispute around the actual values being advocated by government, but the insertion of the word British and its apparent annexation of these values is, for many, deeply disturbing. </p>
<p>The term British on its own is difficult to define. There is no single definition of what it means to be British as historian Paul Ward points out in his book on <a href="http://www.tandfebooks.com/doi/abs/10.4324/9780203494721?isOnline=false">Britishness since 1870</a>. He highlights the fact that Britishness is not innate, static or permanent and has been mediated by many identities, not least race, colour, gender and class. </p>
<p>If we can’t define British, then British values are even more nebulous to pin down as educationalist <a href="http://www.gusjohn.com/">Gus John describes</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>David Cameron and people like me see the world through different eyes. We see our combined history through different lenses and therefore I have a take on the legacy of Empire and what Britain should have been doing about these last 50 years that differs fundamentally from that of Mr Cameron and the roots of his ‘British values’. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>It seems bewildering to some professionals in this area that the government should seek to make such a provocative statement about British values. <a href="http://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/nursery-world/news/1145873/nurseries-teach-children-british-values-lose-funding">Liz Bayram</a>, chief executive of the Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years said that the existing early years curriculum “already requires nurseries and child-minders to develop key skills such as teaching children to take turns and challenge negative attitudes”.</p>
<p>She goes on to say that Ofsted already has the power to judge values under the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/improving-the-quality-and-range-of-education-and-childcare-from-birth-to-5-years/supporting-pages/early-years-foundation-stage">Early Years Foundation Stage</a> and can already, “tackle concerns by judging a setting as requiring improvement”. Bayram calls the innovation “a big reaction to an issue that may not even be there, and that could be tackled by the inspection framework that is already in place”.</p>
<p>Creating policy on this matter is one thing but it is quite another when it comes down to putting it into operation. Asking inspectors to define what a British value is and what is not will add a very tricky element to their training. This is already <a href="http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/school-inspection-handbook">overloaded with the numerous requirements</a> demanded of practising inspectors, not only in the act of inspection itself but equally in post-inspection reporting to the public. They will need to explain exactly how they came to their judgements on this issue.</p>
<p>The guidance contained in the School Inspection Handbook comes into force this September. It remains to be seen how Ofsted will deal with this latest turn in the complex business of regulating English education, and the early years sector will no doubt look on with interest. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/30436/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The recent announcement by the new secretary of state for education Nicky Morgan that toddlers must be taught British values is the latest in a chain of events precipitated by the Trojan Horse affair over…Jacqueline Baxter, Lecturer in Social Policy, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/295002014-07-22T05:18:06Z2014-07-22T05:18:06ZAfter Trojan Horse, why paying school governors is not a catch-all solution
<p>The investigations into <a href="http://www.discoversociety.org/2014/07/01/policy-briefing-trojan-horse-the-media-and-the-ofsted-inspectorate-2/">the Trojan Horse affair</a>, where a group of schools in Birmingham were accused of failing to protect children from extremism, has provoked a number of criticisms centred on the way schools are governed in England.</p>
<p>During a recent <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-28226642">inquiry of the education select committee</a> into extremism in schools, the head of Ofsted, Michael Wilshaw, told MPs that schools in England have relied on “amateurish governance to do a professional job”. His words provoked an angry response from the National Governors’ Association (NGA) <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-23163838">who insisted</a> that being a volunteer is not synonymous with amateurism. Wilshaw also suggested paying one or two governors in each governing body, a move that the NGA are also opposed to and which reflects the views of their members. In a <a href="http://www.nga.org.uk/News/NGA-News/Jan-Aug13/Results-of-the-NGA-TES-Survey-published.aspx">2013 survey</a> only 30% of governors believed they should be paid.</p>
<p>The NGA’s policy manager Gillian Ashcroft told me the NGA’s view is “that one can perform a role professionally and in a business-like fashion without being paid”. She also said there was no evidence to suggest that paying governors would improve governance. </p>
<h2>The end of excitement?</h2>
<p>Given their heavyweight responsibilities, not least in ensuring that the money allocated to pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds is used to close the enduring gap between rich and poor pupils, governors don’t deserve to be called amateur.</p>
<p>They have been hit pretty hard by the changes in England’s educational landscape. Amid the excitement of creating a new system of autonomous schools while also severely cutting Local Education Authority budgets, the government seemed to assume that the old system of school governance could simply be grafted onto a new system of education. This was without any real thinking behind what this system would entail for school regulation and accountability. </p>
<p>The issue has been compounded by old understandings of governance mingling with <a href="http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/framework-for-school-inspection-january-2012">a new regulatory framework</a> which places <a href="https://www.academia.edu/7701386/School_Governor_regulation_in_Englands_changing_education_landscape_Is_it_a_case_of_MAD">governor performance right up there with head teachers</a> and senior leadership teams. But the fortunes of these leaders are now inextricably intertwined with a volunteer body which was recently described by the former secretary of state for education, Michael Gove, as a bunch of <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/9381101/Michael-Gove-attacks-local-worthies-who-become-school-governors-for-the-badge-of-status.html">“local worthies”</a>.</p>
<p>Until the Trojan Horse affair, school governors had attracted surprisingly little attention in the media. Perhaps they weren’t seen as exciting enough – after all, if the government didn’t give it much thought, why would it attract media attention? </p>
<p>But governors have <a href="http://www.cfbt.com/en-GB/Research/Research-library/2010/r-the-hidden-givers-2010">always done important work</a>. The difference is that now they are far less supported in their role and subject to far more stringent regulation. </p>
<p>This is reflected by <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10968611/Ofsted-top-schools-downgraded-for-failing-poor-pupils.html">reports that schools are being stripped</a> of their “outstanding” status by Ofsted for failing to close the gap between rich and poor pupils.</p>
<p>In order to do this, the pupil premium was introduced by the coalition government from an idea conceived primarily by the Liberal Democrats. It is now increasing from its current <a href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20131216163513/https:/www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pupil-premium-funding">£1.875 billion to £2.5 billion in the 2014-15</a> financial year. In an average sized secondary school with an average number of pupils on free school meals, this <a href="http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/pupil-premium-update">translates at around £200,000</a> – the equivalent of five full-time teachers. It represents one of the most substantive strategies to combat the gap between rich and poor pupils, an area in which England performs <a href="http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/PISA-2012-results-UK.pdf">poorly compared to many of its peers</a>. </p>
<p>One of the key tasks for governors is to monitor how the premium is spent, as well as the more difficult task of monitoring its impact on pupil performance. Following allegations in mid-2013 <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-22955368">that schools were misusing</a> the premium to plug holes in budgets, Ofsted has increased its monitoring of governor performance in this area. In its most <a href="http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/pupil-premium-update">recent update</a>, it reported that while school leaders were spending the premium more effectively, “weak leadership and governance is still an obstacle in too many schools.”</p>
<h2>Grafting not crafting</h2>
<p>It is often quite difficult for people outside of England to <a href="http://jacquelinebaxter.net/2014/07/18/school-governors-how-we-got-here-and-where-we-go-from-here/">understand this form of school governance</a> and how it has come about. An emphasis on recruiting school governors from the business sector during the early nineties – which persists today – has gone a long way to creating the idea that the most effective governors are those with a business background. </p>
<p>This prompted a move to link governors’ professional backgrounds with roles on the governing body: an accountant for the finance committee, an HR professional for staffing. Mirroring practices from other public sector boards, payment of an allowance could be the next step in this type of policy borrowing.</p>
<p>But as in the case of international policy borrowing, taking one policy and grafting it onto another context often provokes unexpected results. Already, in the processs of borrowing ideas from non-profit boards, the government has largely negated to consider the very particular context of school governance.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.academia.edu/7701386/School_Governor_regulation_in_Englands_changing_education_landscape_Is_it_a_case_of_MAD">recent study</a> showed that polarised thinking about governors’ roles – conceptualising them as either willing volunteers or adept professionals – is causing tensions among inspectors and head teachers that are counterproductive to accountability.</p>
<p>It is therefore not surprising that Wilshaw feels it would be more productive to separate the two: paying a couple of professional governors whose day job is to keep up with the myriad legislative and policy-related documents issued to governors on a weekly basis. The same governors would presumably have greater responsibility for feeding back during inspections – a prospect that must sound pretty seductive to the inspectorate who often struggle to meet with governors at short notice.</p>
<p>But the idea does raise considerable issues – not least in terms of their recruitment and funding. School budgets are already creaking under the prospect of the extension of austerity measures until 2018. Paying governors for their services, as well as mandatory training, would be highly contentious if it looked to be taking from schools’ teaching and learning budgets. </p>
<p>Looking back over the Trojan Horse affair, it is difficult to see how paying governors would have prevented the issue. Paying just one or two on each board – including the chair – may well have the regulatory advantages mentioned earlier, but it would also create a hierarchy within the governing body, which in the longer term could be equally, if not more, counter-productive.</p>
<p>A hierarchy that would undoubtedly change the whole character of school governing and may well erode the goodwill that has for so long supported, sustained and nourished the foundations of education in England.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/29500/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The investigations into the Trojan Horse affair, where a group of schools in Birmingham were accused of failing to protect children from extremism, has provoked a number of criticisms centred on the way…Jacqueline Baxter, Lecturer in Social Policy, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/286382014-07-15T05:28:55Z2014-07-15T05:28:55ZLessons from Europe on how best to inspect schools<p>The question about how to inspect UK schools has become a live political issue in recent months. As the <a href="https://theconversation.com/ofsteds-future-at-stake-after-trojan-horse-scandal-25936">fallout from the Trojan Horse affair</a> over the protection of children from religious extremism in some Birmingham schools rumbles on, Ofsted, England’s schools inspectorate, is <a href="https://theconversation.com/focus-on-test-scores-over-curriculum-leaves-big-questions-for-ofsted-after-trojan-horse-27772">coming under increasing pressure</a> to reform the way it monitors what goes in classrooms. </p>
<p>But England is just one of a number of countries that are intensifying their inspection processes. Recent studies into school inspection across Europe reveal that even though inspectorates are hoping for the same outcomes, they are adopting very different approaches in governing education. </p>
<h2>One of Europe’s most punitive systems</h2>
<p>These range from systems that focus on regulation and compliance, such as Sweden; to those taking a more developmental approach, such as Scotland, which largely relies on school self-evaluation to monitor progress. Developmental inspections can also be found in Germany, where assessments result in target agreements on school improvement which form the entry points of follow-up inspection visits.</p>
<p>Countries also differ in how much they use “non-punitive” methods including persuasion, feedback and support to motivate school improvement. Austria and Switzerland largely opt for this option. Others countries are seen as being more punitive, using sanctions such as school closure, warning letters, and reconstitution of schools to enforce improvement and compliance. </p>
<p>England is one of the only countries in Europe that combines a hard regulatory approach with a developmental one. It also has the reputation of being one of the most punitive regimes in terms of the <a href="http://revistas.rcaap.pt/sisyphus/issue/view/300">powers that Ofsted has</a> to close schools down and the fear that it has traditionally instilled in those undergoing an Ofsted inspection. </p>
<p>England also stands out for its system of sub-contracting inspections out to private companies (Serco, Tribal and CfBT). Now the head of Ofsted <a href="https://theconversation.com/plans-to-renationalise-school-inspectors-under-ofsted-could-help-assure-quality-27459">Michael Wilshaw has announced</a> that due to numerous complaints of inconsistency in the regime, this will come to an end when the contracts expire in 2015. How the <a href="https://theconversation.com/plans-to-renationalise-school-inspectors-under-ofsted-could-help-assure-quality-27459">agency intends to resolve</a> the massive shortfall in staff that this change will provoke and all by September 2015, is yet to be seen.</p>
<h2>What works</h2>
<p>One ongoing <a href="http://schoolinspections.eu/">study</a> into European inspection involves research teams from eight European countries including England, Ireland, Sweden and the Netherlands. They are examining how inspection promotes good education for all pupils and student achievement in schools. So far, the study has revealed that although countries differ in a number of aspects, as described above, there are some important points that pull up school standards.</p>
<p>The clearer schools are about how an inspection will be conducted, the standards used to evaluate school and teaching quality, and the methods of assessment, the greater the chance that the inspection will lead to school improvement. Examples of such “norm-setting” of inspections can be found in England and the Netherlands, where schools use examples of good practice, published by the inspectorates, to inform their self-evaluations, leadership and teaching.</p>
<p>The way schools evaluate their own strengths and weaknesses has been highlighted as being key to the creation of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-school-systems-need-to-be-more-like-the-tour-de-france-24604">“self-improving school”</a>. The extent to which parents, school governors and students are sensitive to the findings of inspections and place pressure on the school to act on them, is also an important factor, linking strongly to schools’ acceptance of feedback and inspection standards.</p>
<p><a href="http://schoolinspections.eu/final-technical-report-the-netherlands/">Further statistical modelling</a> by the researchers has indicated that those inspectorates (such as England and the Netherlands) that evaluate both the educational practices and outcomes of a school and then publicly report their findings for individual schools, lead to the most effective improvements in schools’ self-evaluation. But this has a downside too, producing unintended consequences that result in a narrowing of the curriculum and discouragement of risk taking and innovation by teachers.</p>
<p>But school inspection is multi-faceted and its desired effects not purely confined to school improvement. A recent project called <a href="http://www.education.ox.ac.uk/governing-by-inspection/">governing by inspection</a> led by Oxford’s Jenny Ozga and teams of researchers from Scotland, England and Sweden, has investigated the ways that governments use inspection to govern increasingly complex education systems. </p>
<p>Taking three very diverse systems of inspection, the project has revealed the powerful political, historical, social and economic factors that influence inspectors’ judgements. In addition it revealed the very different emphases placed on elements such as teacher observation,what counts as evidence, compliance and communication with parents and how this affects the recruitment and training of inspectors. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.academia.edu/4383295/Different_systems_different_identities_school_inspectors_in_England_and_Sweden_a_comparative_study_">recent paper</a> comparing the recruitment and training of inspectors in England and Sweden highlighted the sharp contrast between the two inspection systems. England, with its system of intensive teacher observation, has recently re-modelled the inspection workforce in order to include <a href="http://oro.open.ac.uk/37813/">acting headteachers</a> from outstanding schools. Meanwhile, Sweden changed its policy of recruiting inspectors from an education background to a policy emphasising the recruitment of legal professionals and those with a background in research and proven investigative skills. </p>
<p>Both policies were introduced to counter criticisms, but since they were introduced both inspectorates have been subject to different accusations: Swedish inspectors accused of being too far removed from education, and English inspectors the opposite.</p>
<h2>Lessons after Trojan Horse</h2>
<p>Returning to the current arguments raging over Ofsted’s role in the Trojan Horse affair, the insights from both projects are particularly timely. Inspection has assumed a very different mantle as a result of the crisis over extremism and it is more important than ever that school expectations of inspections are clear to both students and staff. </p>
<p>The elliptical soundbites and vituperative nature of the accusations against the schools involved in Trojan Horse leave the public anything but clear about the purpose of school inspection. </p>
<p>We can also learn from Europe about how inspection in England is being increasingly politicised. In most countries,including England, inspection systems were designed to be immune from undue political agendas and could be relied upon to provide a robust basis for parental school choice. We all have a lot to learn from each other about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to this influential, but contentious process. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/28638/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melanie Ehren has received funding from the EU Lifelong Learning Programme.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacqueline Baxter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The question about how to inspect UK schools has become a live political issue in recent months. As the fallout from the Trojan Horse affair over the protection of children from religious extremism in…Jacqueline Baxter, Lecturer in Social Policy, The Open UniversityMelanie Ehren, Senior lecturer, London Centre for Leadership in Learning, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/284652014-06-26T05:06:53Z2014-06-26T05:06:53ZFor many minorities, Britain is not living up to its own values<p>The controversy over the Trojan Horse allegations of “extremism” at a number of Birmingham schools has provoked much discussion concerning the need to teach and <a href="https://theconversation.com/promoting-british-values-opens-up-a-can-of-worms-for-teachers-27846">assert British values</a> to children. There has been a quick turnaround from the government, and <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/322296/Consultation_Document_23_6_-_independent_school_standards.pdf">a two-month consultation has</a> now been launched on proposals to promote British values in schools. </p>
<p>The proposals come about as part of <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/322297/Draft_standards_changes_PBV_FV_23_6.pdf">changes to the department of education’s Independent School Standards</a>, expected to come into force in September 2014. One of the new standards being proposed requires owners of independent schools to: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Actively promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance for those with different faiths and beliefs; and encourage students to respect other people, with particular regard to the protected characteristics set out in the Equality Act 2010.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The draft proposals also include new clauses that say schools must “encourage respect for other people, paying particular regard to the protected characteristics set out in the Equality Act 2010”
and “encourage respect for democracy and support for participation in the democratic processes, including respect for the basis on which the law is made and applied in England”.</p>
<p>On the surface the general guidance seems reasonable, but a closer analysis reveals it is slanted and directed toward Muslim schools. For example, the proposed new standards seek to enable the secretary of state for education to utilise the Equality Act 2010 to take action against schools that breach equality provisions in regards to gender, sexual orientation and lack of tolerance for other faiths in its teaching. The consultation document specifically refers to girls sitting at the back of the class as an example of poor practice – a clear indication that it is directing its attention to Muslim schools.</p>
<p>But the guidance is silent on measures to tackle institutional inequality in schools. It offers no guidance on recruitment of staff, or on monitoring and taking action on any performance disparities between groups of students such as between males and females, or Muslims and Christians. Nor does it offer guidance on any other forms of discrimination that break the Equality Act and hinders student development. Equality is outlined solely in terms of values.</p>
<h2>Framed by white male politicians</h2>
<p>The question here is whether an understanding of the ideas of Britishness as outlined in the proposed new independent school standards would really resolve issues of social inclusion and equality in schools and the wider society. I’d argue that the appeal to “British values” is a smokescreen that hides a multitude of issues concerning inequality and justice not dealt with by other British institutions.</p>
<p>Political philosophers such as Michael Sandel, John Rawls and others have long-debated what values and mechanisms are required for arriving at the common good when you have a diversity of competing interests operating in society. Martin Luther King Jnr and other theologians have spoken of <a href="http://www.thekingcenter.org/king-philosophy">the “beloved community”</a> and explore the values, principles and ways of belonging that are required to create and sustain an ideal community. So it is legitimate to ask what type of communities we want to live in.</p>
<p>The problem with the current debate and the proposals emanating from them is the context in which “British values” are being framed. It is being done by powerful white male politicians who in talking about “values” in relation to British Muslim minority communities turn “British values” into a racial marker or label of racial differentiation. </p>
<p>The unspoken assumption here is that certain behaviours are labelled as Muslim and that these are not compatible with being British. Hence it is not your passport or the taxes that you pay, that determine whether you can participate in British public life. But now it’s your “values” that determine how British you are and the degree to which you can run and influence institutions in this country.</p>
<h2>Institutions under the spotlight</h2>
<p>Britain needs more than this. It needs a discussion on whether its institutions, from the NHS, to the police to schools, are genuine purveyors and defenders of equality and justice for all. Britain needs an honest and genuine reflection on whether its institutional and policy mechanisms are capable of delivering genuine justice and equality in a 21st century multicultural society. This society needs to incorporate Muslims rather than racialises them as an “other” to be dealt with differently. </p>
<p>A discussion about values needs to focus on all British institutions and the degree to which they genuinely reflect and represent the diversity of the country. Too many British institutions are woefully unrepresentative of the communities that they serve. And too many members of minority communities bear the scars of discrimination, poor service delivery and injustice that they have received from schools, hospitals, the police, the media and other so called venerable purveyors of “British values”. </p>
<p>Where is the public outcry over the lack of “British values” being put into practice on behalf of these citizens? Many black and minority ethnic citizens are still waiting for those proposals, rather than yet another piece of guidance that seeks to tell us how to be British, when much of the rest of Britain is failing to live up to its own values.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/28465/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Ackah does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The controversy over the Trojan Horse allegations of “extremism” at a number of Birmingham schools has provoked much discussion concerning the need to teach and assert British values to children. There…William Ackah, Lecturer in Community and Voluntary Sector Studies, Birkbeck, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/278332014-06-25T05:06:02Z2014-06-25T05:06:02ZAcross Europe’s schools, push for national values is infringing religious freedoms<p>The ongoing debate on radicalisation and schools in both the UK and France is missing an important point: we are still not agreed on exactly what religious radicalism is. </p>
<p>The fact that the British secretary of state for education asked a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-27031941">former head of counter terrorism</a> to investigate the <a href="https://theconversation.com/operation-trojan-horse-examining-the-islamic-takeover-of-birmingham-schools-25764">Trojan Horse</a> “Islamist” plot at a number of schools in Birmingham shows a confusion that is spreading all over Europe: the idea that religious radicalism leads automatically to political radicalisation, and thereby terrorism. </p>
<p>And this is followed by another assumption – that to prevent terrorism we should promote a liberal conception of religion, or force religious people to accept the liberal values of a secular society. This, of course, is highly debatable. Could a religion be liberal and endorse, more or less willingly, liberal values? How should tolerance work – by imposing common values, or by recognising the right to have different values?</p>
<h2>Trojan Horse plot unthinkable in France</h2>
<p>When it comes to faith and schools, the French educational system is very different from the British one. Most French schools are strictly secular government schools (with 82% of the total of pupils), and most of the so-called “private schools” are also closely monitored by the ministry of education. Only private faith schools have a real autonomy, and most of them are Jewish. There are fewer than ten Muslim faith schools in France. </p>
<p>There have been reports concerning public schools in France such as the 2004 “<a href="ftp://trf.education.gouv.fr/pub/edutel/syst/igen/rapports/rapport_obin.pdf">Rapport Obin</a>” which highlighted unauthorised religious activities such as prayers, and refusal to assist to some school activities on religious grounds such as swimming or sex education. There were also reports of absences from school canteens during the fast of Ramadan, and interventions during classes contesting some points made by the teacher on issues such as evolution, the Holocaust and Palestine. But the ministry of education considered such incidents as isolated cases and did not investigate further.</p>
<p>These attitudes come from individual pupils, and are not connected with any kind of “plot” such as the alleged one in Birmingham to take control of the schools. This would be impossible in France given the weak power of the “school board” and the strong control of the state. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that schoolteachers are confronted with growing demands from their pupils to take into considerations religious beliefs and norms.</p>
<p>Across Europe, the debate about conservative religion and radicalisation is not just about Islam. Evangelical and ultra-orthodox Jewish schools also claim to promote conservative values. These values could have been in line with the dominant social values some 60 years ago (rejection of homosexuality, support for gender segregation, refusal of sexual education), but are seen now as intolerant or backward. </p>
<p>The issue is not that the dominant European culture has became secular – a trend that began long before the 20th century – but that it has turned far more tolerant since the 1960s, including among the conservative rights, at least in Northern Europe. Despite some new approaches (such as <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/11/vatican-ii-catholic-church-changes_n_1956641.html">Vatican II</a> within the Catholic church), the religious revival that has spread since the 1970s, coupled with the arrival of new forms of religiosity, such as charismatic Christianity among both protestants and Catholics, has led to a more fundamentalist approach in all religions.</p>
<p>All this has meant that the shrinking of religious practices in mainstream society turned remaining faith communities into more “radical” minorities, who feel threatened and besieged, if not harassed, by the dominant secular culture. </p>
<p>It should be no surprise that these growing tensions spread to the schooling system. Many parents do see a contradiction between their values and the values taught in school. In the US, this has led to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-home-schooling-make-kids-more-politically-tolerant-24429">widespread takeup of home schooling</a>, which had been a trademark of “progressive” parents 50 years ago, by conservative Christian families.</p>
<h2>Where radicalism is not bred</h2>
<p>But does religious conservatism automatically lead to political radicalisation? Most of the <a href="http://www.meforum.org/3539/homegrown-terrorists">research</a> across Europe and <a href="http://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/SR236Venhaus.pdf">the USA</a> on young Western jihadists shows that they are rarely part of a local Muslim faith community. A typical pattern of articles written to explain their trajectories shows the journalists being told by the stunned jihadist’s entourage that nobody had any hint about his religious radicalisation – except maybe in the last months preceding the action. </p>
<p>The relatively <a href="http://aei.pitt.edu/9378/2/9378.pdf">high percentage of converts among terrorists</a> indicates that radicalisation is not the consequence of a pervasive, long-term religious indoctrination in the midst of a local Muslim community, but is the result of an individual and sudden decision to go for action. </p>
<p>Conversely, many so-called religious fundamentalists are perfectly quietist in political terms. Think of the <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/05/egypt-salafi-party-faces-growing-isolation-2014514111139164795.html">Egyptian Salafis</a>, who vocally advocate the implementation of sharia, but supported the anti-Islamism military take-over in their own country. Most ultra-orthodox Jewish communities, such as the Lubavitch, are far from being radical Zionist militants. Like the Salafis, they just want to create a local environment where they can live by their own rules and values.</p>
<h2>When a common identity impedes freedom</h2>
<p>So rather than obsessing over the dubious notion of a terrorist threat in schools, the debate should be on the limits of religious freedom. If ensuring mutual toleration between a secularist majority and minority faith communities is a very legitimate goal, should this imply the imposition of “common values”, tolerance excepted? </p>
<p>Concepts like <a href="https://theconversation.com/promoting-british-values-opens-up-a-can-of-worms-for-teachers-27846">“British values”</a> or “French values” refer to a common “identity”– the populist’s favourite big word. But the idea that a society is supposed to share a common set of values (aside from loyalty to the nation) is quite new. </p>
<p>This dubious call for a common “identity” (instead of citizenship or nationality) looks more like a denial of a deeper crisis: European culture has drastically changed in the last 50 years, not because of immigration, but because of an in-depth secularisation. The call for identity is just a way to patch up pieces of an imaginary national culture that corresponds neither to history nor to the “great culture” of literature and arts.</p>
<p>Freedom of religion is a core part of the modern political values that made Europe what it is, after centuries of intolerance. It implies the recognition of diversity and pluralism. This has nothing to do with “multiculturalism”, because what is at stake here are precisely religious demands not cultural traditions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27833/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Olivier Roy receives funding from European Research Council for the ReligioWest project</span></em></p>The ongoing debate on radicalisation and schools in both the UK and France is missing an important point: we are still not agreed on exactly what religious radicalism is. The fact that the British secretary…Olivier Roy, Head of the Mediterranean Programme, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/278322014-06-17T05:10:29Z2014-06-17T05:10:29ZExplainer: what was the Louisiana school takeover?<p>The Department for Education has been scrambling to end the crisis over allegations of extremism at Muslim schools in Birmingham (the so-called Trojan Horse affair). Among all the ideas floated, one, the “<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/jun/09/downing-street-launches-snap-ofsted-visits-after-extremism-claims">Louisiana option</a>” of a full-scale government takeover of the schools in question, has started to arouse serious interest. </p>
<p>While hardly a simple solution, New Orleans’s radical attempt to turn around its failing school district has understandable appeal at such a fraught moment – and it’s a natural test case for officials in Birmingham and Westminster to use.</p>
<h2>Segregation</h2>
<p>In the 1840s, the City of New Orleans founded the <a href="http://www.opennola.org/home/pictures-videos/">first major urban public school system</a> in the American South. But in a city made up of waves of multilingual immigrants, enslaved Africans, and free people of colour, reaching consensus on the purposes and structure of a public education system has never been easy. </p>
<p>The racially segregated public school system of the <a href="http://plessyandferguson.org/events.html">Plessy era</a> came to a close after the 1954 <a href="http://www.uscourts.gov/educational-resources/get-involved/federal-court-activities/brown-board-education-re-enactment/history.aspx">Brown v. Board of Education</a> decision, and the forced <a href="http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2010/11/fifty_years_later_students_rec.html">desegregation of New Orleans Public Schools</a> took place in 1960. The school system became nearly all poor. Most middle class and non-white students either left for private schools or moved to nearby suburbs. </p>
<p>Intended primarily for the poor, Now Orleans’s public schools were chronically underfunded, suffered from <a href="http://www.neworleansleftbehind.com/">poor results</a>, and were <a href="http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2010/03/former_orleans_parish_school_b.html">frequently mismanaged</a>. While generations of educators, both <a href="http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2010/03/former_orleans_parish_school_b.html">black</a> and <a href="http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/robert-m-ferris-flood-conflict-new-orleans-free-school-story">white</a>, served admirably in <a href="http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/robert-m-ferris-flood-conflict-new-orleans-free-school-story">difficult conditions</a>, the schools still struggled. </p>
<h2>Bankruptcy</h2>
<p>After the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, student test data was made public annually, and showed <a href="http://cis.uchicago.edu/outreach/summerinstitute/2013/documents/sti2013_perry_thetransformationofneworleanspubliceducation.pdf">just how far behind New Orleans’ students were</a> compared with their peers across the state. And while academic achievement improved steadily in the years leading up to Hurricane Katrina, state policymakers viewed the school district and its predominantly African American students and teachers as a thorn in the side of the powerful economy of this historic city. </p>
<p>A month after Katrina, Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education member Leslie Jacobs stated in a <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4944196">radio interview</a> that the district “was academically bankrupt, it was financially bankrupt, and it was operationally bankrupt … the central office ability to support schools was not there. So pre-Katrina, one could argue that Orleans public schools could vie for being one of the worst districts in the nation.”</p>
<p>Following suit, on November 31 2005, three months after the hurricane and with most residents still not able to return home, the state removed nearly all of the schools from the locally elected school board and placed them under the control of the state-run Recovery School District.</p>
<p>This was achieved by adding a clause to a 2003 state takeover bill that allowed to state to define a “district in academic crisis” as any local school district with more than half of the schools deemed as failing based on student test scores. This meant any school performing below the state average (rather than simply a school with inadequate annual growth) could be taken over. </p>
<p>In turn, this allowed the transfer of nearly all local schools to state control and, crucially, to the dismissal of nearly 7,000 school district employees, who could not be paid by a district that now only received funds for the few remaining schools under its control. Due to the extreme displacement of the city’s population, there was <a href="http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ784847.pdf">little effective opposition</a> to the move.</p>
<h2>Mixed bag</h2>
<p>To date, <a href="http://neworleansparentsguide.org/files/NOPG2014.pdf">79 of New Orleans’ 85 public schools</a> (93%) are charter schools. The largest group (59 schools) are charters overseen by the state-run Recovery School District, with some schools run by the local school board and a few by the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. Ten non-profit charter management organisations run 42 of the RSD charters, with the remainder each governed by its own non-profit board. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.coweninstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/NBTN-Test-Performance.pdf">Test scores have continued to rise</a>, as they had been doing prior to Hurricane Katrina, but academic performance is still below average for Louisiana students. With the dismissal of many pre-storm teachers, and a rapid expansion in the numbers of young, alternatively certified teachers, the teaching force has become <a href="http://www.coweninstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/SPENO-20121.pdf">increasingly inexperienced</a>.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.coweninstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/RAND_TR1145.pdf">2009 RAND survey</a> found that parents tended to be satisfied with their schools, and have <a href="http://www.coweninstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Choice-Focus-Groups-FINAL-small.pdf">enjoyed greater school choice</a> in the nearly all-charter system. The pro-market Fordham Institute named New Orleans the <a href="http://www.edexcellencemedia.net/publications/2010/201008_SchoolReformCities/Fordham_SchoolReform_Final_Complete.pdf">best US city for school reform</a> in 2010 and both the <a href="http://www.ed.gov/oii-news/national-conference-highlights-federal-grants-charter-schools">federal Department of Education</a> and <a href="http://www.arnoldfoundation.org/laura-and-john-arnold-foundation-announces-25-million-investment-support-high-performing-charter-sch">private funders</a> have heaped praise (and money) on the reforms. </p>
<p>As other cities have eyed the New Orleans reform, powerful local reform support organisation <a href="http://www.newschoolsforneworleans.org/">New Schools for New Orleans</a> has published a <a href="http://www.newschoolsforneworleans.org/a-guide-for-cities">Guide for Cities</a> interested in implementing New Orleans-style reforms.</p>
<p>However, there have also been persistent criticisms of inequitable service for <a href="http://www.splcenter.org/access-denied/special-education-in-new-orleans-public-schools">students with special needs</a> and <a href="http://www.splcenter.org/access-denied/security-and-safety-in-new-orleans-public-schools">stringent discipline policies</a> that push out challenging students. Critics have also raised legitimate concerns about the <a href="http://escholarship.org/uc/item/3dd2726h">lack of local community participation</a> and <a href="http://www.j4jalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/J4JReport-final_05_12_14.pdf">racially-targeted school closures</a>. In January 2014, the teachers dismissed after the storm <a href="http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2014/01/7000_new_orleans_teachers_laid.html">won in state court</a>, setting the stage for possibly crippling back payments. </p>
<p>Nearly ten years into the reform, it seems clear that these decisions will ultimately help raise student achievement from its admittedly very low baseline. Mass conversion to charter schools, heavy reliance on inexperienced teachers, and a lack of centralised control have allowed the state to easily support the expansion of higher-performing schools and shut down lower-performing ones. It therefore comes as no surprise than citywide averages are up, and this is worth applauding. </p>
<p>But some of the policies that have made the past ten years of growth possible might also make it more difficult for New Orleans’s schools to be excellent, rather than just acceptable or mediocre. Until the city can re-establish <a href="http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=beabout">school and community linkages</a>, keep experienced educators in classrooms, and sufficiently educate the hardest-to-serve youngsters, we will not know if we have seen temporary gains or truly sustainable reforms.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27832/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian Robert Beabout does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Department for Education has been scrambling to end the crisis over allegations of extremism at Muslim schools in Birmingham (the so-called Trojan Horse affair). Among all the ideas floated, one, the…Brian Robert Beabout, Assistant Professor, Educational Leadership , University of New OrleansLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/278942014-06-12T04:54:48Z2014-06-12T04:54:48ZTheresa May’s leadership bid won’t be tarnished by Gove row
<p>For the past four years or so, Theresa May has cultivated the reputation of being “The Quiet Woman” of Tory politics. She was seen as a pragmatic and unfussy politician who gets things done. But the <a href="https://theconversation.com/birmingham-has-most-to-lose-from-gove-may-extremism-row-27650">recent row</a> with the education secretary Michael Gove about Islamic radicalisation in Birmingham schools showed a side of her that Conservative backbenchers and party supporters consider less forgiving. </p>
<p>Conducting her feud in public, Theresa May committed one of the cardinal sins of politics: she was perceived as disloyal, with little regard for her party’s reputation. Some also saw her reaction as a demonstration of her ambition to topple David Cameron if the Conservatives lose next year’s general elections. It’s no surprise that the current conventional wisdom in Westminster says that this episode has almost <a href="http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/james-forsyth/2014/06/will-theresa-may-now0become-the-gordon-brown-of-this-government.html">fatally wounded her ambitions</a>. </p>
<p>But has this row really damaged Theresa May’s chances of becoming the leader of the Conservative Party? To believe so is to assume that her main rivals are flawless, adored by the party and the media and popular with voters. The only person who more or less fits that bill is London Mayor Boris Johnson, but he has problems of his own. His reputation as the kind of party maverick the Tory right likes so much is not necessarily an asset for a future prime minister. As for George Osborne, he may have his fan club in the cabinet and in some sections of the backbenches but he is not universally popular. In fact, the right of the party does not trust him. His social liberalism makes him a fee-paying member of the despised Notting Hill set. He is also perceived, in the words of a government minister, as “a bit of a snob”. </p>
<p>The feud with Gove did not endear May to her conservative backbenchers but it did not reveal anything they did not know already. Indeed, even before the row broke out, many Conservative MPs had reservations about May. According to her critics, she has no interpersonal skills and has made the mistake of not cultivating a coterie of supporters. As a result she finds herself isolated in cabinet and few are ready to act as her cheerleader in the backbenches. But her biggest problem is her hinterland (or lack of). She is seen as a doer but not as someone who has a vision for the party. </p>
<p>But it is precisely her competence, pragmatism and no-nonsense attitude that has won her many admirers in the party and in the press over the years. Her longevity at the Home Office, the Whitehall department known as the graveyard of many political careers, has surprised many. </p>
<p>This is not the result of luck but of hard work and determination. Home Office officials say she works her brief diligently, reading every piece of paper that goes through her red boxes and going to extreme lengths to ensure that her aims are achieved. This working method is behind some of her successes, namely the extraditions of the radical clerics Abu Hamza and Abu Qatada. In the case of Abu Qatada she personally travelled to Jordan to negotiate the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorrism-in-the-uk/9123259/Theresa-May-in-Jordan-to-discusss-abu-katada-deportation.html">conditions of his extradition</a>. </p>
<p>Theresa May has also managed to carve up a niche for her style of politics. She offers a blend of pragmatic social liberalism with true blue politics. She shows her pragmatic social liberalism in her championing of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-27564577">greater gender parity</a> in Conservative politics, in the reforms of the controversial practice of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/law/2014/apr/30/theresa-may-reform-police-stop-and-search-powers">stop and search</a>, in the sensitive way in which she deals with the Muslim community on questions of radicalisation, or even when she admits to having <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8696102.stm">changed her mind</a> about adoption rights for homosexual couples. But she is able to reassure the Tory grass roots by pursuing the goal of reducing immigration and fighting terrorism with ideological zeal. </p>
<p>Like Margaret Thatcher before her, she has also gained the reputation of being gutsy. When last month she told the Police Federation that they had to “face up to reality” and <a href="http://www.conservativehome.com/video/2014/05/watch-theresa-may-the-police-must-change-and-so-must-the-federation.html">accept change</a> she had right-wing and left-wing commentators at her feet. Whilst Fraser Nelson <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/10849699/Theresa-May-the-tiger-woman-who-rips-her-enemies-to-shreds.html">called her</a> “the tiger woman who ripped her enemies to shreds” Martin Kettle <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/21/theresa-may-ripped-up-tory-pact-police-thatcher">said</a> she was “one of the most radical and effective police reformers to have occupied the home secretary’s chair in at least half a century”. Conservative backbenchers were equally impressed. According to a poll by the ConservativeHome website collated a few days after this speech, Theresa May was the in <a href="http://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2014/06/theresa-may-storms-to-a-12-point-lead-over-boris-in-our-future-leader-poll.html">pole position</a> to become the next conservative party leader. </p>
<p>For all these reasons, Theresa May should not be ruled out. In a year’s time, this row will be forgotten and, if the Conservatives lose the 2015 general election, the party may find that a pragmatic but gutsy captain is their best chance to navigate the choppy waters of opposition.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27894/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
For the past four years or so, Theresa May has cultivated the reputation of being “The Quiet Woman” of Tory politics. She was seen as a pragmatic and unfussy politician who gets things done. But the recent…Eunice Goes, Associate Professor of Communications, Richmond American International UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/278462014-06-11T14:25:34Z2014-06-11T14:25:34ZPromoting ‘British values’ opens up a can of worms for teachers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50835/original/g44r83nh-1402484449.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A full English. Is that British?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ilgiovanewalter/2865216681/sizes/o/">ilgiovaneWalter</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Following recent allegations of Muslim extremism in some Birmingham schools and <a href="https://theconversation.com/trojan-horse-snap-school-inspections-will-not-solve-wider-governance-issues-27824">Ofsted putting five of them in special measures</a>, Michael Gove, the secretary of state for education announced that schools in Britain will be required to “actively promote British values”. </p>
<p>Gove’s announcement is not surprising. In 2012, his department <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/301107/Teachers__Standards.pdf">revised qualifying Teachers Standards</a> required newly qualified teachers [NQTs] not to undermine “fundamental British values” in their teaching and to show tolerance of other cultures and respect for the rights of others. </p>
<p>But what is meant by British values? In the teaching standards, the government defined British values as “democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs”. This definition of British values coincides with <a href="http://www.ethnos.co.uk/pdfs/9_what_is_britishness_CRE.pdf">findings by the former Commission for Racial Equality</a> in 2005. But it is questionable whether democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs are actually unique to Britain. </p>
<h2>Are British values shared?</h2>
<p>How are British values constructed and can they be taught in schools? The previous Labour government in 2007 commissioned colleagues and I to <a href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130401151715/https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eorderingdownload/rr819.pdf">conduct a study</a> around these issues. In part, the research was concerned with understanding teacher conceptions of British values and contentions of shared British identities which could be explored in schools as part of the citizenship education curriculum. </p>
<p>As part of developing a wider understanding of teacher practice in relation to promoting shared British values through citizenship education, teachers and headteachers were asked about their understanding of shared British values. For the majority, the shared nature of British values was difficult to articulate. Many even had reservations about whether all Britons do in fact share the same values. This scepticism led one primary school head to state: “You start worrying me when you say shared”. </p>
<p>Expanding on his concern that British values are not shared by all members of society, a secondary headteacher of a London school argued that tolerance of and inclusion of different groups only had “real value” and meaning in London, which as a city is “very ethnically diverse”. He added that “the further you move away from London, the less those values have any impact on the way people interrelate” and integrate with each other. </p>
<p>This perception is supported by the 2011 UK census and <a href="http://beta.scie-socialcareonline.org.uk/crossing-the-line-white-young-people-and-community-cohesion/r/a1CG0000000GKSZMA4">Paul Thomas and Pete Sanderson</a> at the University of Huddersfield. Their research into community cohesion in the north of England suggests that white young people were less likely than Asian young people to self ascribe themselves as British. Instead, they identified themselves as English.</p>
<h2>Who measures who has them?</h2>
<p>In promoting an understanding of shared British values, the citizenship curriculum in 2007 was widened to include “identity and diversity: living together in the UK”. Keith Ajegbo, Dina Kiwan and Seema Sharma <a href="http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/6374/1/DfES_Diversity_%26_Citizenship.pdf">emphasised in their diversity curriculum review</a> of citizenship education that in order for young people to explore how they live together in the UK today and to debate the values they share with others, it is important they consider issues that have shaped the development of UK society.</p>
<p>However, the teachers we interviewed argued that there was a danger in trying to “over-analyse” or “discuss” British values and “Britishness”, especially if such analysis resulted in teachers trying to discover “how close they [pupils] are to that [British] value and how far away they are”. Therefore these teachers implied that honest debates about British values and whether they are shared or not were what was required in citizenship education. </p>
<p>A real difficulty these teachers envisioned in teaching about shared British values was that cultural values when internalised are durable and become difficult to change. They were concerned that where pupils or teachers disagreed with the idea that British values are shared, such disagreements would “be used” by the government and school governing bodies to exert compliance. As one head teacher put it, this could be “as a stick to beat some groups of people over the head with”; and by “people” he meant both teachers and pupils.</p>
<h2>Resistance to stoking division</h2>
<p>In his book <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2839981-the-genesis-of-values">The Genesis of Values</a>, Hans Joas makes clear that governments need to consider whether values are “consensually shared and internalised as value(s)” by everyone – including the majority population. He also contends that: “any attempt to make a certain value system obligatory would be more likely to provoke counter movements than achieve its goal without entering resistance”. </p>
<p>This view was shared by the teachers we interviewed. Several expressing resistance to educating about British values, particularly where they had concerns that minority ethnic cultural values were not being respected in the wider society or included within the umbrella of British values. </p>
<p>Such fears led one head teacher to openly state that she would “worry about how to teach it”. She was concerned that a focus in citizenship education teaching on shared British values would lead to minority ethnic cultures and values being “ignored or dismissed”. This is more likely to occur where teachers bring uninformed views about particular ethnic groups to the classroom. Such views could be regarded as racist and demonstrating a lack of understanding and tolerance of minority ethnic groups.</p>
<h2>Work ahead for teachers</h2>
<p>Before the government requires schools to promote British values, it is incumbent on teachers to have an understanding of Britain as a multi-ethnic population with diverse cultural values. It’s also important that these understandings are sensitively explored so as to illustrate the ways in which minority ethnic groups also fit within notions of “Britishness”. </p>
<p>As one PSHE cordinator told us in our research, very often schools “get NQTs who haven’t really got very much idea at all” about Britain’s ethnic diversity. With the lack of focus on issues to do with ethnicity, culture and religious beliefs in the new <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/301107/Teachers__Standards.pdf">Teachers’ Standards</a>, newly qualified teachers are less likely to be well informed about Britain’s diverse population.</p>
<p>All teachers will need opportunities through continuing professional development (CPD) to recognise that <a href="http://books.google.fr/books/about/Race_Culture_and_Difference.html?id=3NZonSikZPcC&redir_esc=y">British identities are multiple, fluid</a> and will continue to change. Individuals move between identities in different contexts and times, and this may affect their perceptions of <a href="http://www.runnymedetrust.org/publications/29/74.html">Britishness and shared British values</a>. Teachers will also need to reflect on and challenge the stereotyped views about different ethnic groups they and students might hold, and the labels that might apply to them. This matters as much to white British groups as it does to minority ethnic communities.</p>
<p>Teacher CPD is salient as, without an agreement as to what “Britishness” and “British values” are, teachers’ efforts not to undermine British values might actually serve to accentuate “differences” and create racial tensions. As one pupil put it to us, even if everyone is “the same on the outside” it does not mean they feel “the same on the inside”. </p>
<p>And finally, teachers will need to recognise and appreciate how perceptions of “race” and notions of “belonging” are constructed. And in turn how these concepts along with racism, structure some pupils’ understanding of “Britishness”, notions of “otherness” and experience of intolerance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27846/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Uvanney Maylor received funding from the Department for Children, Schools and Families under the previous government. </span></em></p>Following recent allegations of Muslim extremism in some Birmingham schools and Ofsted putting five of them in special measures, Michael Gove, the secretary of state for education announced that schools…Uvanney Maylor, Professor of Education, University of BedfordshireLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/277722014-06-10T12:47:12Z2014-06-10T12:47:12ZFocus on test scores over curriculum leaves big questions for Ofsted after Trojan Horse<p>The process of reform in any complex organisation is difficult, uneven and subject to being blown off course by events. In two recent articles in the Conversation I have drawn attention to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/ofsted-reforms-are-a-cultural-shift-to-celebrate-best-teaching-24692">cultural shift apparently underway</a> in Ofsted, the English schools inspectorate. </p>
<p>That shift towards a “new” Ofsted, more responsive to the complexities of the inspection process and to <a href="https://theconversation.com/plans-to-renationalise-school-inspectors-under-ofsted-could-help-assure-quality-27459">the concerns of its critics</a>, has received a set-back – hopefully temporarily. This is due to the <a href="http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/advice-note-provided-academies-and-maintained-schools-birmingham-secretary-of-state-for-education-rt">publication of a letter</a> by its chief inspector Michael Wilshaw to the secretary of state for education, Michael Gove, in the light of the “Trojan Horse” investigation into extremism being taught at Birmingham schools. The letter reveals something of the “old” Ofsted mind-set which has proved so damaging to the inspection process in the past.</p>
<p>In it, the chief inspector castigates almost all parties involved in the Trojan Horse schools but especially some governing bodies, the local education authority, the Education Funding Agency, and, indirectly, the department for education. Of the official bodies involved with Birmingham schools only Ofsted itself escapes from Ofsted criticism.</p>
<h2>Flawed inspection framework</h2>
<p>I am not concerned here to critique the actual findings of the Ofsted inquiry: I have no inside knowledge which would lead me to support or reject their recommendations, which have led five schools to be placed under special measures. I do, however, have considerable reservations about Ofsted’s unwillingness to acknowledge limitations in its own procedures and processes, which have contributed to the current crisis. I’ll focus on three of these here.</p>
<p>Like most schools currently subject to periodic Ofsted inspection, most of the schools at the heart of the inquiry have been inspected recently under <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2005/18/contents">section 5 of the Education Act 2005</a>. But as <a href="http://www.wwwords.co.uk/rss/abstract.asp?j=forum&aid=5117">many of us have argued</a>, the section 5 inspection framework is flawed and fails to do justice to the full life and work of the schools. It employs a very impoverished view of what constitutes “effectiveness” and “achievement” and is focused unduly and disproportionately on performance data in tested or examined subjects. </p>
<p>Many other aspects of a school’s life and work get short shrift. Schools judged as “outstanding” or “good” under these restricted, results-oriented criteria may have serious shortcomings which will not be given the prominence they deserve in this myopic view of what makes an effective school. </p>
<p>This, I suspect, lies behind the sudden and, to many observers, inexplicable decline reported in some of the Birmingham schools such as <a href="http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report/provider/ELS/138059">Park View School</a>, downgraded from “outstanding” to “inadequate” on the basis of more focused inspections which belatedly take account of far more than performance data.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/framework-for-school-inspection-january-2012">current inspection framework</a> has four focus points: pupils’ achievement, teaching quality, leadership and management, and pupils’ behaviour and safety. All but the latter are pegged on achievement measured in terms of performance data. </p>
<p>Conspicuous by its absence as an explicit focus is the quality of the school’s curriculum, its main medium for the transmission of knowledge, understanding and values. Yet it is these issues that are at the heart of the current Trojan Horse controversy. In his letter, the chief inspector does not acknowledge the curriculum <em>lacuna</em> in the very heart of its normal processes of school inspection. He should have acknowledged that deficiency but did not.</p>
<h2>Categories outdated</h2>
<p>A second lesson Ofsted should draw is the inadequacy of its fourfold categorisation of schools as “outstanding”, “good”, “requires improvement” and “inadequate”. To reduce the complexity of a single school to a single descriptor is bad enough. To reduce the richness and complexity of a whole system to a percentage distribution over just four categories is gross oversimplification. </p>
<p>Every school is a complex amalgam of strengths and weaknesses and it is these that need to be communicated to those who need to know. Single descriptors get in the way of sophisticated professional analyses and detract from forensic examination of what is working well and not so well in relation to any school’s declared aims and values. </p>
<p>Just as Ofsted has <a href="http://news.tes.co.uk/b/ofsted-watch/2014/02/21/ofsted-39-we-don-39-t-grade-teachers-on-individual-lessons-39.aspx">moved away from making lesson grades</a>, so it should move away from offering crude overall grades in its school inspection reports. What is needed instead are reports which provide an independent professional evaluation of the values, aspirations, achievements and shortcomings of particular schools in a readable, bespoke way. These can then be used as a basis for dialogue with parties interested in the educational well-being of their learners. Forcing crude overall gradings on schools stifles rather than stimulates that sophisticated dialogue.</p>
<h2>Catching schools out</h2>
<p>A third lesson, unlikely to be heeded in the heat of the controversy, is to avoid the knee-jerk reaction of imposing no-notice inspections as a matter of course in all circumstances. The positive cultural shift to which I have alluded previously involves a number of changes, not just in impression management. </p>
<p>This includes Ofsted now avoiding implications that schools are out to thwart the inspection process and that some at least need to be “caught out”. Unfortunately that impression is in danger of being revived if no-notice inspections become the rule, not the exception.</p>
<p>I hope that the chief inspector will learn lessons from the Trojan Horse inquiry, including acknowledgement of Ofsted’s own limitations. He should not allow aspects of the “old” Ofsted mind-set to derail the much needed rehabilitation of school inspection in England.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27772/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Colin Richards worked as a government inspector of schools from 1983 to 1996, including four years in Ofsted.</span></em></p>The process of reform in any complex organisation is difficult, uneven and subject to being blown off course by events. In two recent articles in the Conversation I have drawn attention to the cultural…Colin Richards, Emeritus Professor of Education, University of CumbriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/278242014-06-10T11:57:26Z2014-06-10T11:57:26ZTrojan Horse: Snap school inspections will not solve wider governance issues
<p>The long-awaited <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/318392/Review_of_Park_View_Educational_Trust.pdf">inspection reports</a> on 21 schools in Birmingham accused of involvement in the “Trojan Horse” affair over alleged Islamic extremism, were released on June 9 to a hungry media. The affair, which is far from over, has raised myriad questions around both the way our current education system is governed and its place in our wider society.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/advice-note-provided-academies-and-maintained-schools-birmingham-secretary-of-state-for-education-rt">reports by schools inspectorate Ofsted reveal</a> that out of the 21 schools investigated, <a href="http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/framework-for-school-inspection-january-2012">five are to be placed in special measures</a> – the lowest Ofsted grade. A further nine schools have been re-categorised to “requires improvement”. </p>
<p>The inspections were carried out with only 30 minutes notice in contrast to earlier inspections carried out with 24 hours advance warning. At the same time, the Education Funding Agency, the government body which distributes public money to schools, published the results of its own investigations into two academy trusts in Birmingham, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/318392/Review_of_Park_View_Educational_Trust.pdf">Park View Educational Trust</a> and <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/318401/Review_of_Oldknow_Academy_Trust.pdf">Oldknow Academy Trust</a>. These revealed a number of breaches of both the funding agreements and of the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/318392/Review_of_Park_View_Educational_Trust.pdf">Independent School Standards</a>.</p>
<h2>Policing the crisis</h2>
<p>Leaks of official documents have given rise to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/jun/07/trojan-horse-row-labour-new-ofsted-criteria">non-stop media coverage</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/birmingham-has-most-to-lose-from-gove-may-extremism-row-27650">community unrest</a>. There have also been allegations by a number of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/jun/03/education-experts-ofsted-trojan-horse-birmingham-schools">influential critics</a> indicating that Ofsted inspections were politically partial. </p>
<p>Media tropes and language used in coverage of the affair and a high-profile row over how to tackle extremism in schools between education secretary <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/michael-gove-and-teresa-may-go-to-war-over-alleged-islamic-extremist-plot-to-take-over-birmingham-schools-9485294.html">Michael Gove and home secretary Theresa May</a> have muddied the waters. It is difficult for the public to understand whether this is an educational matter or an issue linked to national security and counter-terrorist activities.</p>
<p>Use of terms such as “plot”, “war” “curb”, and <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2652389/Schools-face-snap-Ofsted-inspections-combat-fanatics-David-Cameron-personally-intervenes-Trojan-Horse-controversy.html">“dawn raid”</a> combine to frame the investigation in terms used for criminal activity. It is an approach reminiscent of <a href="http://us.macmillan.com/policingthecrisis/ChasCritcher">Stuart Hall’s seminal study</a> of the ways that media coverage of mugging in the 1970s resulted in dramatic changes in legislation and sentencing. </p>
<p>With less than a year to go until the 2015 general election, the affair has provided <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/jun/07/trojan-horse-row-labour-new-ofsted-criteria">powerful political leverage</a> to parties on all sides. Politicans have been eager to apportion blame and use the affair as a springboard for their forthcoming election manifestos. </p>
<h2>A growing concern</h2>
<p>Concerns over the ways in which new <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-27739044">school autonomies</a> would affect faith have been at the forefront of education debates for some time. Documents such as the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/97976/prevent-strategy-review.pdf">government’s 2011 Prevent Strategy</a> set out new policies on extremism awareness strategies both in school and out of hours.</p>
<p>Newly <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/300309/KCSIE_gdnce_FINAL.pdf">updated guidance</a> from the government published in April 2014 sets out how schools and governors should keep children safe in education. It very specifically states that governing bodies and proprietors should consider how children can be taught about issues such as forced marriage, drugs and radicalisation through teaching and learning opportunities. It also specifies the criteria under which this area will be explored in inspection. </p>
<p>In turn, <a href="http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/school-inspection-handbook">school inspectors are asked to consider</a>: “the extent to which pupils are able to understand, respond to and calculate risk effectively, for example risks associated with extremism”.</p>
<p>At <a href="http://www.goldenhillock.bham.sch.uk/images/ABOUT_US/OFSTED/Ofsted%20Report%20Released%209th%20June%202014.pdf">Golden Hillock School</a>, one of those schools placed in special measures, this was articulated in its Ofsted report as the lack of leader and governor action to mitigate against cultural isolation, and the risks associated with this – including risks of radicalisation. It was also outlined in terms of lack of engagement with the Prevent programme by teachers.</p>
<h2>Back to the drawing board?</h2>
<p>There are two broad conditions for schools put into special measures: that “the people responsible for leading, managing or governing are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement” and that “the school is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education”.</p>
<p>In his advice to the department of education, Ofsted chief inspector <a href="http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/advice-note-provided-academies-and-maintained-schools-birmingham-secretary-of-state-for-education-rt">Michael Wilshaw recommends</a> that there should be much greater clarity for all schools over what should be taught in a “broad and balanced curriculum”. But at the moment, just how this is understood by the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-academies-and-academy-projects-in-development">4,095 academies and 175 free schools</a> in England is far from clear.</p>
<p>In addition, the autonomies offered to academies place a great emphasis on school governors and heads to monitor the curriculum. But research into not-for-profit boards has recognised that it is <a href="http://www7.open.ac.uk/oubs/research/pdf/WP96_03.pdf">non-financial monitoring</a> of performance that poses the biggest challenge for governing bodies. This is the monitoring of the activities of a particular organisation rather than just its financial performance. It is more difficult for governors to monitor this because of the thin line betweeen monitoring and interference in operational activities.</p>
<p>In previous articles for this column I have emphasised the <a href="https://theconversation.com/columns/jacqueline-baxter-124061">challenges posed by new governance structures</a>, freedom from local authority control and support, combined with a huge rise in the number of academies and free schools. These are creating substantial challenges in terms of both inspection and governance <a href="https://theconversation.com/ofsteds-future-at-stake-after-trojan-horse-scandal-25936">how schools are inspected</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/columns/jacqueline-baxter-124061">governed</a>. </p>
<p>In his advice to Gove, Wilshaw specifically mentions under point E that governing bodies in many of the schools that were inspected have experienced rapid turnover in governors and staff. He says that this high level of “churn” has “left schools vulnerable to influence by unsuitable governors”.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-park-view-educational-trust">EFA report</a> into Park View Educational Trust specifically criticises the confusion around both governing structures and governing practices. At Nansen Primary School, run by the trust, it reports that: “Parent governors we spoke to were confused by the governance structure and post.” These deep underlying issues cannot be resolved by Ofsted inspections alone.</p>
<p>Yet the government seems to be convinced that inspection is the answer, with proposals of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/jun/09/downing-street-launches-snap-ofsted-visits-after-extremism-claims">snap, no-notice inspections</a> which smack of a knee-jerk reaction. With next to no lead-in time, there is even less chance of inspectors being able to contact school governors during the visit, and could lead to even more distance between governors and the inspectorate.</p>
<p>But while the Trojan Horse affair has opened what many perceive to be a can of worms, it has revealed the true extent of the lack of cohesion and deeply perturbing issues pertaining to both the structure, content and accountability of our system of education; not to mention the political syllogism that underpins so many so-called educational reforms. The question is, now these issues are out in the open what exactly are we as a society going to do about them?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27824/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The long-awaited inspection reports on 21 schools in Birmingham accused of involvement in the “Trojan Horse” affair over alleged Islamic extremism, were released on June 9 to a hungry media. The affair…Jacqueline Baxter, Lecturer in Social Policy, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.