Student Teachers' Perceptions of the Educational Agenda of the New Extreme Right

Abstract

The growth of the new extreme right (NED) as a political actor in recent years has penetrated the social discourse and has come to generate an educational agenda that seeks to modify the educational system and the teachings provided in it to its advantage, breaking the existing basic consensus on educational principles and values. This article describes, interprets and analyzes the perceptions of first-year teacher training students (Early Childhood Education, Primary Education and Dual Degrees in Early Childhood and Primary Education) at a Spanish public university on the central themes of the educational agenda of the Spanish NED. From an interpretative paradigm, their discourse is recovered through semi-structured and in-depth individual and group interviews. The results show diffuse and contradictory discourses in relation to the specific topics of the educational agenda addressed, an insufficient affective-sexual education and education in Human Rights. A volatile and porous discourse is evident. The danger of such inconsistency is that it changes easily, especially in the face of ideologically strong and discursively astute positions. What is needed is an education with a focus on rights and the promotion of deep and solid reflective thinking.