Re-conceptualising radicalization: The Educational Research Context of Counter-Extremism through the Prism of Worldviews and Value Learning

This chapter reconceptualizes current and much vaunted notions of extremism and radicalization within the contexts of a broad, cross-disciplinary research literature and a diverse range of counter-extremism political policies across nation states worldwide. Where intense policy and research interest in ‘radicalization’ and ‘extremism’ have intensified rapidly over recent years, the resultant research findings and national/ international policies often conjointly highlight the importance of the educational contexts of youth in simultaneously detecting risks towards radicalization and preventing ideological extremism, along with its (rarer) manifestation in terroristic violence. What tends to be lacking, however, in both the research and policy spaces is sustained critical attention to the perspectives of youths’ own views on these matters. Drawing on our current (2018–2023) empirical research project funded by the Academy of Finland, our chapter makes a distinctive contribution to the research literature on radicalization by presenting historical-contemporary analysis and current empirical findings on the context of extremism through the prism of worldviews and value-learning. A particular feature of this contribution is the advancement of a life trajectory model of ‘Value Learning Trajectories’ (Kuusisto and Gearon 2017a), and a reconceptualization of radicalization within the broader frame of a human-rights-centered ‘spectrum of value.’