Finding 5
Pupils discussing conspiracy beliefs in schools are not necessarily doing so because they hold a strong or genuine belief.
Summary:
Where pupils bring up conspiracy theories in school, it is difficult to differentiate the reasons for them doing so.
The majority of school staff believe that pupils bring up conspiracy theories at school because they are genuinely curious about them, rather than to simply disrupt the class.
A majority of school staff think that young people believe conspiracy theories to some extent when they raise them – even if this is hidden behind a façade of humour or debate.
There was also a sense among school staff that raising and discussing conspiracy theories sat alongside a wider culture of theorising around frivolous, media-friendly topics.
This blurring of the lines between online speculation and conspiracy theory makes it hard for both young people and school staff to identify where and when it is occurring.
Where pupils bring up conspiracy theories in school, it is difficult to establish their reasons for doing so. The majority of school staff (55%) believe that pupils bring up conspiracy theories at school because they are genuinely curious about them, rather than to simply disrupt the class. However, school staff also suggested that pupils bring up conspiracy theories facetiously, with 44% of respondents believing that pupils bring such theories up to cause a controversy, 39% because it is funny, and 35% to get attention. In addition, the majority of school staff (63%) do think that young people believe conspiracy theories to some extent when they raise them – even if this is hidden behind a façade of humour or debate.
Graph 5: In your view, which of the following explains why school pupils bring up conspiracy theories when they do? Select any which apply [School staff]
I think there's that sense just that it's just another way to look different to the generation before them. I think fundamentally most of them, for a lot of the conspiracy theories, they know they're nonsense. But isn't it really cool to sound controversial and to disagree with what the adults say?
Teacher, North East Focus Group
This sentiment was echoed during our Evidence Sessions. Jeremy Hayward (Associate Professor, UCL Institute of Education) noted that “sometimes there’s a playfulness to it [conspiracy belief]” because it “intrigues people”. He also spoke to the idea of it being a part of a “countercultural phase”, where pupils are using it to nonconform.
Glenn Bezalel, Deputy Head (Academic) at City of London School and author of Teaching Classroom Controversies, noted the importance of having a more rounded view of the reasons young people might believe in conspiracies, citing pastoral issues, problems at home, and the general human search for narrative.1
We have to get rid of this idea that our students are just pure, rational creatures – they’re not.
Glenn Bezalel, City Boy’s School, Commission Evidence Session
Jeremy Hayward also expressed a similar view, noting that the internet’s ability to facilitate the rapid peer-to-peer spread of knowledge and ideas had resulted in a desire for narratives:
A lot of young people's understanding of the world now does not come from schools. It comes from social media influencers online. It comes in the form of video content, often in narrative form, where people are piecing together a story that makes sense of the world. Whether that's a story about Gaza, whether that's a story about masculinity, whether that's a story about politics, whatever it is.
Jeremy Hayward, UCL, Commission Evidence Session
There was also a sense among school staff that raising and discussing conspiracy theories sat alongside a wider culture of theorising around sensationalised media stories such as the implosion of a submarine or the Jay Slater case, not dissimilar from ‘true crime’ speculation.
“One of the biggest [conspiracies] at the minute for us is all the theories that are going around about that young man, is it Jay Slater… They grab on to the sensational things and run with them.”
“…one of the kids today brought something about, you know, the boy that’s gone missing abroad [Jay Slater] and just their own theory with it. And I thought, well, where have you pulled that from?”
In pupil focus groups, researchers encountered a sub-section of belief that was close to conspiracy, in a similar manner to that described to us by school staff. This could have been interpreted as conspiratorial but might also be poorly-applied critiques of societal structures.
Celebrity conspiracies persist, and, to a degree, this has been the case for many years (conspiracies over rapper deaths in the 90s, for instance). But it was apparent that speculation over the lives of celebrities was remarkably hard to disaggregate from content that strays into conspiracy theories. For example, in a focus group, one pupil shared that they had begun to look into the Illuminati due to their interest in theories around the music industry.
This blurring of the lines between online speculation and conspiracy theory makes it difficult for both young people and school staff to identify where and when it is occurring. The perception that there is a range of different behaviours driving the discussion of conspiracy theories in schools, means it is difficult for school staff to identify when an intervention should be made.
This is compounded by the informational asymmetry experienced by school staff who feel ill-equipped to identify the actual drivers behind each individual conspiracy reference in the classroom, or even to know when a student has stepped out of ironic engagement into worrying belief.
“Capitalist people are controlling what everyone does”
“School is designed to churn out workers who are obedient”