Finding 11
Teachers are identified by both parents and young people as a popular vehicle for intervention; however, teachers don't feel always confident addressing these issues.
Summary:
Teachers were identified by both parents and young people as adults who should deal with issues surrounding conspiracy theories in school.
There was a fairly high degree of faith from parents in schools to deal with conspiracy theories.
A plurality of teachers say that they are at least moderately worried about a pupil expressing their belief in a conspiracy to them in the classroom.
The requirement for teachers to be politically neutral was often seen to come into conflict with the desire to address some conspiracy theories.
There was a high degree of agreement between school staff and parents as to how conspiracy theories should be tackled in the classroom. Both school staff and parents felt the most important approach was in encouraging the student to think critically about the sources and evidence.
An absence of clear guidance or best practice has led to both increased workload for staff looking for support on this issue in their schools, and a lack of clarity about which approaches and techniques were most impactful.
Work on conspiracy belief, misinformation and disinformation in schools tended to be reactive, rather than proactive.
Teachers specifically were identified by both parents and young people as adults who should deal with issues surrounding conspiracy theories in school. 53% of young people believe teachers should be responsible for dealing with conspiracy theories being shared in schools. Parents echoed this (73%), although a significant number felt that they (65%) and wider school support staff (44%) should both take responsibility for dealing with conspiracy theories being shared by young people in schools.
Across school staff, teachers were also seen as the primary vessel for identifying and dealing with conspiracy belief, with 65% of school staff suggesting that this is where responsibility should lie. Strikingly, when asked directly, 77% of teachers agreed that it was their responsibility to address conspiracy theories when they came up in the classroom.
Graph 11: In your view, whose responsibility is it to deal with “conspiracy theories” being shared in schools? Select any that apply
While it is crucial to note the stresses that are already placed on the school system more broadly and teaching staff specifically, this near-consensus that the challenges of navigating the online world should be addressed by teachers may in part be driven by the role that schools now play in facilitating online access for pupils. From intranet services to cloud-based homework submissions and general online research tasks, schools introduce, promote and often require the use of technology for students. Given their role in providing access to online content amongst young people, schools should undoubtedly have a role in ensuring their safety.
[Schools are]... the primary introducers of technology into many young people’s lives.
Chris Martin, CEO, The Mix, Commission Evidence Session
Among parents, there was a fairly high degree of faith in schools to deal with conspiracy theories. Indeed, 60% of parents are confident in their child’s school’s ability to address conspiracy theories spreading in the classroom.
Although teachers agreed that addressing conspiracy belief, misinformation and disinformation was part of their role, many were concerned about the reality of dealing with these issues. A plurality of teachers (49%) said that they are at least moderately worried about a pupil expressing belief in a conspiracy to them in the classroom.
While teachers in our quantitative sample expressed confidence in their ability to handle certain elements of tackling conspiracy belief, our qualitative research revealed that beneath the surface was a real lack of confidence when it came to the specifics of dealing with conspiracy theories when they were raised. In our quantitative data, 73% of teachers said they felt confident in disproving false information mentioned by a pupil and 75% felt confident in challenging a conspiracy theory brought up by a pupil. During our qualitative research, many school staff described specific occasions where they had felt ill-equipped to deal with examples of conspiracy belief, or misinformation and disinformation, either due to knowledge differentials or due to the sheer confidence of pupils in their argument.
This may also be due to differences in how teachers view what it means to ‘deal with’ conspiracies: one way of dealing with a conspiracy is to shut down the discussion, which is effectively a question of classroom management. However, the references to ‘confidence’ and ‘debate’ in our qualitative research suggests that teachers are on shakier ground when it comes to dealing with conspiracies from a pedagogical point of view:
While teachers saw addressing conspiracy theories, misinformation and disinformation in the classroom as part of their role, they were often concerned about the political nature of some of these issues. The requirement for teachers to be politically neutral was often seen to come into conflict with the desire to address some conspiracy theories.
“You know, they [young people] walk into the classroom confident and talking about these things…”
“I think it’s getting worse. And I think it’s getting worse a lot more with the boys than the girls…You hear the conversation in the classes or down the corridor, and it’s the boys that bring it into the classroom to kick start a kind of debate on it. And so they’re more outspoken about it, and they’re more likely to take sides, and [it’s] based on what they’ve heard, not the actual facts in hand.”
There were also concerns about the way that parents would react to teaching on certain issues, citing a growing sense of ‘parent-ocracy’ – the outsize influence of parents – in schools.
“We did recently get an email saying you’re not allowed to express political views without qualifying them highly.”
“Some people really struggle with those difficult conversations around those things. I also think some teachers are worried about backlash from parents now as well… we have become more of a ‘parent-ocracy’.”
“So it [backlash to Solutions Not Sides work] involved students releasing videos on social media of the teacher… we had an incident in a school where they decided not to keep working with us because they were getting attacked and pressured.”
This lack of confidence was echoed in our expert evidence sessions. Jeremy Hayward told the Commission that he considered teacher confidence to be key, and suggested that a school-wide policy on teaching controversial issues was part of the solution.
“My recommendation to schools is always have a policy on the teaching of controversial and sensitive issues…we need head teachers to be really strong and stand by teachers because we don’t want a culture where teachers are worried about saying the wrong thing.”
“I think we need to start showing more understanding. I like to call my classroom a community of understanding. I’m not here to win. I’m not here to preach.”
“I think teachers aren’t confident of anything sensitive. So that’s my broader role in the teaching of controversial issues…These teachers are thinking: ‘Gosh, I might say the wrong word. I could be cancelled. Is the student filming? This is best. It’s…the safest thing to do is to close down all discussion on anything potentially controversial, so I can’t be accused of bias, so that I might not say the wrong thing.’”
“I think schools could be doing more around this agenda. I think they could be engaged in more conversations. But I also think that that the teachers and staff need to be taught how to facilitate these conversations. They don’t know how to do it.”
Despite the current pressures on schools more broadly and the teaching profession specifically, it was notable throughout our qualitative research how willing teachers were to take on responsibility for addressing conspiracy belief, misinformation and disinformation in schools. The fact that teachers expressed a willingness to take this on top of everything else they do should not be taken lightly.
Across our qualitative research we found many schools undertaking significant work around online safety more broadly, and some that had considered conspiracy theories specifically. That said, work on conspiracy belief, misinformation and disinformation in schools tended to be reactive, rather than proactive. School staff tended to tell us that they had responded to incidents in school, often by adjusting their PSHE curricula.
We have a safer schools police officer who works with us four days a week...we found that we were being far too reactive, waiting for things to happen.
Teacher, North East Focus Group
The urgent need is just to get more teachers aware of the different approaches. There are times when arguing back and presenting corrective facts is the right thing. There are times where having a one-on-one. There are times we're closing down and saying, ‘look, this is actually quite offensive’ , possibly is the right thing to do as well. But that won't fix the bigger problem of how young people are watching unedited nonsense from influencers online. That's not going to stop that problem at all. Education at some point has to change...because the new world is the screen, and that's how young people are getting their ideas and information, and we're not really teaching them how to navigate that, we're doing a lot on safety, ‘don't share [explicit content]’ and so on. We're doing a lot on anti-grooming, but we're doing nothing about information, misinformation and conspiracy theories.
Jeremy Hayward, UCL, Commission Evidence Session
Broader school culture was important in empowering school staff to address these issues, with clear guardrails on how to act. Setting a positive culture of ‘news engagement’ was suggested by one school leader as way of creating a wider environment in which these important conversations are surfaced in a safe and structured space.
“I’d agree that ours definitely get most news outside of school from social media. As a school we signed up to The Day, the children’s newspaper…during our [tutor time], they look at that every day.”
“This [culture of addressing conspiracy theories, misinformation and disinformation] needs to come from the top down as well as the bottom up.”
Parents expressed support for this type of intervention in focus groups. Beyond the value of the knowledge imparted in these sessions, they were also seen as a useful vehicle for parents to engage with their children around their internet use, providing a useful forum for conversations on difficult topics to occur. There was often support for the idea of a broader focus on internet safety beyond what currently exists.
It's like ‘I'm going to this session. What do you think I'm gonna learn?’...for me it just allows her to be able to say, you know what, what's happening in her world. You just open a door and they have to be able to walk through it and talk to you about it.
Parent, North East Focus Group
Despite the need for support for teachers regarding misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy belief, national guidance appears to be patchy and inconsistent at best. The lack of clear guidance or best practice has led to both increased workload for staff looking for support on this issue in their schools and a lack of clarity about which approaches and techniques were most impactful. One leader told us that in their view, the guidance was often contradictory, with organisations trusted by schools in this space giving different and piecemeal advice.
It's [guidance on online content] very reactionary. It’s not proactive at the minute.
Teacher, Yorkshire and the Humber Focus Group
This lack of clarity is then complicated by the multifaceted and evolving nature of conspiracy theories, which means that there are nuances inherent to each discussion. It should be acknowledged, therefore, that it is hard to make guidance concise, helpful and high-quality if the topic is broad, ill-defined and evolving.
“What doesn’t help is that the guidance that they do send [on misinformation] is ridiculously long and you think ‘no, just give us a summary’!”
“I don’t think there’s a consistent view of the right sorts of pedagogies and approaches to tackle conspiracies and misinformation generally and how to support media and information literacy more profoundly.”