Cabinet Secretary Attends Launch of ‘Digital Discourse Initiative’
Cabinet Secretary Attends Launch of ‘Digital Discourse Initiative’
The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, Jenny Gilruth MSP, visited Cathkin High School for the launch of Digital Discourse Initiative – our new project to counter the effects of online hate and disinformation in schools.
In an increasingly polarised society, children and young people are exposed to false and harmful information, extremist ideologies and content, and hate across online spaces. We have developed the Digital Discourse Initiative as part of a new international collaboration with the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) to support schools in Scotland to address this. It has launched with the publication of an online professional learning course for teachers, school staff, and educators.
The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, Jenny Gilruth MSP, attended a launch event for the project at Cathkin High School in South Lanarkshire. A group of teachers and senior leaders who participated in the user testing of the professional learning course provided their reflections, highlighting that the course helped to improve their confidence by providing them with the knowledge and tools to teach about online hate and disinformation with young people.
Staff shared their experiences of the effects of children and young people’s exposure to online hate, noting that pupils often brought content and discourse from social media into the classroom and they had noticed an increase in prejudice as a result.
In the professional learning course, teachers explore the features of disinformation and the nature of online hate using expert insights and analysis from ISD research. They are provided with tools and strategies to equip pupils with the skills to evaluate sources, fact-check information, and identify false or prejudicial conspiracy narratives in the course.
The module also features a detailed case analysis about the so-called ‘Manosphere’ and the promotion of radical misogyny online from Zero Tolerance, the charity working to end men’s violence against women.
We know there is a very worrying trend in the spread of deliberate misinformation and hateful material online which impacts on communities across the world.
That is why we have supported the first stage of this work to help teachers and learners develop skills needed to recognise and address these issues. The professionalism, lived experiences and common-sense analysis of our teachers will be more important than ever as this resource is rolled out, ensuring everyone in our schools has the opportunity to explore a range of views in a safe, respectful environment.”
The Cabinet Secretary also met with pupils from S1 to S6 at the school, asking them about their own experiences online. They discussed regularly seeing hateful content on the social media apps that they use. Specifically, the young people shared examples of misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, racism, and ableism that they had encountered online in recent days. They felt that the rate of hate and extremism online was affecting interactions at school.
Pupils also discussed that they were often susceptible to false information online and that they would benefit from learning about disinformation and what it can look like at school. They also discussed the need for schools to be more direct in teaching about the dangerous consequences of hate, prejudice and discrimination affecting diverse groups of people in society.
The experiences of pupils at Cathkin High School were consistent with Focus Group Discussions held last year with over 200 secondary school pupils to inform the development of the project.
They found that pupils were concerned about the “normalisation” and “minimisation” of extreme hate and prejudice online – particularly misogyny, homophobia and racism – and the effects this was having on their school experiences. Pupils wanted their schools to do more to address this phenomenon.
During the Cabinet Secretary's school visit, pupils spoke about the hate and extremism that they are exposed to online, sharing the negative impact this has on their wellbeing and the behaviour of their peers at school.
This is a serious issue and exists within a wider context where experts are warning about the threats posed by online hate and disinformation to democracies. We were delighted that the Cabinet Secretary supported the launch of the Digital Discourse Initiative and had the opportunity to hear directly from teachers and pupils.
We have developed this new project through an ongoing international collaboration with the Institute for Strategic Dialogue to help schools counter the effects of online hate and disinformation. Developed with experts, a new professional learning course equips teachers and school staff with the tools they need to confidently address these issues, help pupils identify disinformation, and support the development of pupils' critical thinking and digital media literacy skills."
Jordan Daly
Co-Founder and Director of Time for Inclusive Education
The new online professional learning module launched through the Digital Discourse Initiative can be accessed by all teachers, school staff, and educators working in Scotland. It includes content from online disinformation, prejudicial conspiracy narratives, and radicalisation to counter-strategies for schools and education settings and curriculum tools for lessons.
Its development involved a variety of key education partners, including staff from Education Scotland, NASUWT, EIS, and academics with relevant expertise.
The course can be completed by teachers and school staff in Scotland through digitaldiscourse.scot
More information on this and all of our professional learning can be found on our Teachers page.
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In an increasingly polarised society, children and young people are exposed to false and harmful information, extremist ideologies and content, and hate across online spaces. We have developed the Digital Discourse Initiative as part of a new international collaboration with the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) to support schools in Scotland to address this. It has launched with the publication of an online professional learning course for teachers, school staff, and educators.
The new 
