In the era of social media, alternative facts and fake news, host society youth are expected to welcome and include refugees despite the terror shared online and fueled by a continuously growing hate speech and fear of radicalization. Research on youth and on social media claims that youth are influenced by the plethora of messages shared online (Wohn, Ellison, Khan, Fewins-Bliss, & Gray, ,2013; Spears & Postmes, 2015). They are viewed as victims whose thoughts and behaviours are easily triggered and manipulated by exterior online forces. From a Personal Construct Psychology (PCP) perspective, online youth are viewed as knowing subjects, with experiences and construct systems that they use to construe the messages diffused online. In our presentation, we share how the interview protocol we designed based on Personal Construct Psychology principles to study how youth from host societies construe online comments about the Syrian refugee crisis became a powerful learning tool that allowed these youths to engage in critical thinking about media content and its influence on how they perceived the “the Other” and the world events involving this “Other”.

1. Nadia Naffi
Concordia University
Learning about “Otherness” in the Era of Radicalization:
Disrupting the dialogue through the pedagogy of understanding oneself
Ann-Louise Davidson
Concordia University
Third International Symposium on Teaching about Extremism, Terror and Trauma
September 29, 2017

2. Agenda
Context
Focus of the study
Theoretical framework
Methodology (Interviewing instruments)
Example of one instrument: Perceiver Element Grid
Results

4. Paris
Cologne
Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May June Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan
2 0 1 6
Brussels Nice
Feb
Quebec
Berlin
Edmonton
2 0 1 5
Mar Apr
London
Stokholm
2 0 1 7
May
Manchester
Terror Attacks and Sexual Assaults
Led to High Level of Online Reactions

8. 40 081

10. Victimes

11. Alexandre Bissonnette

12. “Canadian Exceptionalism” ?

13. 100
Hours
100
Hours

14. ROL EROL E

15. Personal Construct Psychology Fundamental
Postulate: Person’s processes are
psychologically channelized by the ways in
which he/she anticipates events (Kelly, 1955)
Sociality Corollary: To the extent that one person
construes the construction processes of another
he/she may play a role in a social process
involving the other person (Kelly, 1955)
To the extent that a person can construe the
relationships between the members of a group,
he or she may take part in a group process with
them (Procter, 1981)
TheoreticalFramework

16. 1 Self-Characterization Technique
2 Perceiver Element Grid (Qualitative Grid)
3 Repertory Grid Technique
4 Laddering Technique
+Demographic Questions
+Validation Questions
Methodology

17. Perceiver Element Grid
(Harry Procter)

19. Youth X Host Society Syrian Refugees
Youth X
How do you interpret
the content of these
posts?
How do you think the
host society interpret
the content of these
posts?
How do you think
Syrian refugees
interpret the content
of these posts?
Host Society
How do you think the
host society think
that you interpret the
content of these
posts?
How do you think the
host society think
their own group
interpret the content
of these posts?
How do you think the
host society think
Syrian refugees
interpret the content
of these posts?
Syrian Refugees
How do you think
Syrian refugees think
that you interpret the
content of these
posts?
How do you think
Syrian refugees think
the host society
interpret the content
of these posts?
How do you think
Syrian refugees think
their own group
interpret the content
of these posts?
Why?

20. Youth X Host Society Syrian Refugees
Youth X
How would you
behave if you
happen to meet a
Syrian refugee for
the first time ever
in your classroom/
workplace after
you have read
these posts and
comments?
How do you think
the host society
who never
encountered a
Syrian refugee
before but have
read all these
posts and
comments would
behave when they
first meet a Syrian
refugee in their
classrooms/
workplace?
How do you think
Syrian refugees
who never
encountered the
host society
before but have
read all these
posts and
comments would
behave when they
first meet the host
society in their
classrooms/
workplace?
Why?

21. Islamophobia
Racism
Fear
Islamophobia
Racism
Fear

22. What Youth Learned
About Themselves

23. Control how social
media influence them
Shape the image shared
online of the refugee
presence in Canada

24. Filtered online posts about the Syrian refugee crisis before reading them
based on a set of selection criteria
๏length of the posts
๏identity and posting behaviours of authors
๏content being shared
๏arguments leading the statement
๏familiarity of the participants with the arguments
๏tone projected by the post
๏quality of the resources used to back up the arguments
๏media used
๏concerns shared through the post
๏personal reaction triggered by the post
What Youth Learned
About Themselves
Participants

25. Recognized the image of Syrian refugees the public was led to believe by
the media
๏refugees are dehumanized on social media
๏they are considered as problems to deal with instead of human beings
fleeing life-threatening events
๏they are viewed as uneducated, coming with large families, and most
probably future burden on host society tax payers
๏they are accused of “having ruined their own country and now coming to
ruin ours”
Participants
What Youth Learned
About Themselves

26. Recognized the image of the anti-Syrian refugee Canadians (ASRC) that
they construed based on social media content and behaviours
Identified factors that potentially influenced attitudes towards refugees
๏Small town effect
๏Social media influence
๏Educational gap
๏Family and peer pressure
Participants
What Youth Learned
About Themselves

27. Realized that they could and must disrupt the discourses around Syrian
refugees
๏felt that they should show their support of positive posts about the
resettlement of refugees to counterbalance the massive dissemination
of hateful posts
๏planned to report posts that were offensive or contained lies or
misinformation.
๏decided not be discouraged by the close mindedness of some
๏decided to provide people with alternative arguments or stories that
would allow them to make an informed decision
๏would make more efforts to anticipate behaviours after terror attacks to
counter the violent accusations that would target Muslims and Muslim
refugees
๏would acknowledge their own bias and actively communicate with
people with opposing views
Explained that their online passiveness resulted from perceived
barriers online
What Youth Learned
About Themselves

28. A to-do-list emerged from the discussions and was validated
by the participants.
The list included:
1. Care
2. Do own research
3. Opt for informed arguments
4. Be open to others’ arguments
5. Look for well formulated arguments
6. Detect fear arguments
7. Identify how a post or a statement could affect readers
8. Take the necessary time to learn the root(s) of the issues
9. Believe that all voices matter
10. Acknowledge that making someone change their political
views is difficult
11. Believe that change is possible
12. Be patient, creative and persistent
What Youth Learned
About Themselves

29. Nadia Naffi
Concordia University
Thank You
Ann-Louise Davidson
Concordia University
Third International Symposium on Teaching about Extremism, Terror and Trauma
September 29, 2017