The Manitoba professor developing a tool kit to help identify early stages of extremism

A professor at the University of Winnipeg is developing a tool kit to help teachers identify the early signs of extremism in their students.

A professor at the University of Winnipeg is developing a tool kit to help teachers identify the early signs of extremism in their students.

Kawser Ahmed, an adjunct professor in the political science department at U of W, said the idea for the project came from his post-doctoral research on pathological intervention in countering radicalization.

During his research, he spoke with teachers and realized they face “enormous” challenges.

“I’m talking about pre-COVID times. At that time the extremism and radicalization to violence, which was prevalent in Manitoba schools, was in terms of the ‘it’s okay to be white’ movement, anti-Semitism, quite a bit of anti-Indigenous hatred in the schools,” Ahmed said in an interview on Thursday.

From there, Ahmed started to think about how teachers can actually intervene when it comes to extremism in the classroom, especially because they are not fully equipped with the knowledge of the language, signs, and symbols of extremism and extreme groups.

“I thought why don’t we equip our teachers with all this knowledge so that they can handle extremism in their classrooms directly?”

Ahmed noted that the project has a two-year timeline with several stages, including working with educators to develop the content of the tool kit, and bringing in stakeholders, including parents, school administrators and law enforcement agencies.