Conceptualising Threat: Implementing the Prevent duty within Greater Manchester's Further Education Sector

The aim of the fellowship will be to produce a series of high impact outputs which address academics, policy makers and practitioners. The fellowship will utilise the findings of my PhD which produced an exceptional dataset of over 100 participants' experiences of the Prevent duty. The interdisciplinary research examined experiences of the UK's counter-terrorism agenda, the Prevent duty, to understand what its implementation within Greater Manchester's Further Education sector told us about the conceptualisation of threat. It revealed that the duty was implemented through two key means: safeguarding and British values. These mechanisms for embedding counter-terrorism within the everyday space of education revealed four key narratives through which threat became conceptualised: as vulnerability to radicalisation; a responsibility to safeguard against; all forms of extremism and terrorism; and, antithesised by British values. Through these narratives, it was possible that an extraordinary agenda of security became de-exceptionalised and normalised by placing it within existing mechanisms and rhetoric of education. However, the true extent of this de-exceptionalisation was limited as a result of a long standing wider public discourse of prejudice rooted in the War on Terror context. Yet, it also revealed that processes of enactment enabled educationalists to identify and minimise the disproportionate impacts of these biases, resulting in a ground level shift from focusing on securitising criminals to safeguarding victims. This fellowship will provide the time necessary to publish these findings in world-leading outlets, and ensure the data reaches and influences key stakeholders.

Impact and Engagement (40%)
Policy Briefs (20%):
a) 'British values in the classroom' will examine findings in relation to British values. Specifically, it will demonstrate the problematic language of Britishness and the perceived limitations, challenges and dangers of the promotion of values as "British". (4 pages)
b) 'Implementing the Prevent duty within Further Education' will reveal the key means through which FE institutions are implementing the duty; it will predominantly focus on highlighting the key challenges and limitations faced by actors throughout the policy chain and the actions being taken to overcome them. (4 pages)

Workshop (20%):
a) A practitioner-based workshop will disseminate key findings from the PhD with those it directly engages - educationalists, policy makers, Prevent workers and student groups. Attendees will be invited through current networks, with invitations extended to expand and build further networks in the field with an aim of 35 attendees. The workshop will also encourage knowledge exchange and co-production to offer insight into developments and changes in practice from the point of data collection. (1day)

World Leading Publication Record (40%)
Journal Articles:
a) Article one will examine a current lacuna within the field: the experiences of students. It will provide the first empirical insights into student experiences of the implementation of the duty in the classroom, their negotiations of British values and their responses to being responsibilised to refer peers.
b) Article two will reveal how, through the implementation of the Prevent duty, we can examine discursive constructions of threat within the everyday vernacular spaces which emerge through policy enactment.

Professional Development (10%)
a) I will engage in continuing professional development through the University of Leeds Organisational Development & Professional Learning centre which offers courses aimed at building research, publication, networking, impact and grant development skills to enhance my portfolio.
b) I will continue teaching a small number of hours to ensure my pedagogic practice remains up to date, contributing directly to the 'Security, Terrorism and Insurgency' MA programme with POLIS