“Future teachers confronting extremism and hate speech”

“A critical literary discourse analysis in “No Witchcraft for Sale” by Doris Lessing

The #metoo movement: Collective identity for building digital activism

By analyzing the three articles, it is possible to see a connection when identifying ideas such as power, identity and hate speech. The collective identity constructed through Twitter appears strongly in the #metoo movement and in the short story when we consider women narratives and the African cultural knowledge reflected in a movement of resistance.

These topics can be related to classrooms contexts. We can find some negative discourses/hate speech discourses which comes from the students - as well as #metoomovement, generally it is influenced by attitudes that children grow up listening and seeing it, the use of internet and social medias without limits - and the teacher has a important role in the process of avoiding the propagation and promoting themes as a debate subject in the classroom. In order to help the students, there are three steps that teacher can follow:

1 - teacher should help the students identify the hate speech. 2- the teacher should promote debates and good discussions. 3- finally the students can see a hate speech from a different perspective and maybe change it. So, teachers must consider their students ideas towards themselves, their context and the opposing opinions. It is the teacher's job to make the students construct their critical thinking by showing situations to build a positive environment for these identities and ideologies in order to avoid extremism and hate speech.

The five texts discuss, in its own way and with its own object, the relationship between discourse, identity, and ideology through Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Text 1 highlights how the anti-vaccine movement creates a discourse that constructs a collective identity online, making use of lexical elements to promote misinformation. Similarly, Text 5 talks about the #MeToo movement’s use of digital platforms to also create this collective identity. Both studies examine the power of discourse in mobilizing social movements in digital contexts.

In contrast, Text 4 focuses on hate speech in education, highlighting how hard it is for future teachers to counterspeech despite recognizing harmful ideologies. Identity formation is also explored in fictional contexts in Texts 2 and 3, which use TV series as objects of study. Text 2 investigates the tv show Black Mirror and exemplifies identity manipulation through media discourse, and Text 3, on the other hand, observes the character from Blindspot, analyzing how her identity construction is shaped by social ideologies.

In all texts, ideology is a key point, as it influences identity through social movements, media and educational contexts.