The future will be easiest for young people who can embrace diversity, as well as find common ground within it. However, these skills do not appear from nowhere and old patterns of tribalism and rejection of “the other” still occur among the new generation.

As a specialist in youth deradicalisation, I see a common thread in referrals of young people drawn into extremist behaviour: these children cannot view their identity holistically. Many will state that they are solely one race or religion, and this aspect of themselves trumps all others.

By selecting one part of themselves and rejecting those who don’t share it, these individuals can carve a niche and use it to navigate the world through a narrative of “us” and “them”. That narrative inevitably leads to patterns of segregation, anxiety and, in some rare cases, violence.

Fear of something alien is quite natural. There is no malice in a child seeking friendship with people whom they believe share their values. However, by encouraging self-definition in a number of ways, we could help young people to reinforce social ties and demystify aspects of other cultures. This can mean they move between groups more freely, due to a collective sense of belonging.

For example, Alice is not simply British: she is a British Christian, artist, swimmer and singer. Ali is not simply Muslim: he is Muslim, Bangladeshi, British, Asian, a footballer and a writer.

Each child should be taught to be proud of all these elements that combine and make them unique, but also taught to “communitise” with anyone who shares a small part of their identity. This social outlook could help to increase tolerance and empathy among future generations.

I decided to test these ideas and examine if teaching primary school children to embrace their identity holistically could increase movement between social groups or encourage a greater understanding of communities that may be beneficial to society in the long term.

To do this, I developed resources on “embracing my identities” and “community values” with the staff of Manor Junior School in East London - to whom I am very thankful. The first lesson teaches children to view themselves holistically. They are asked to find at least six aspects of their identity and to start to think of themselves as special based on their unique combination of these features, rather than one of them alone. Pupils then make as many links to the people in their class as possible, based on shared aspects of themselves.

The second lesson covers positive community values by demonstrating how people with shared parts of their identities can form communities, and then talking as a class about good practices in these groups. The latter could include respect for those in and outside of this collective, a feeling of safety and so on.

Finally, pupils are given scenarios in which people are isolated because of one part of their identity. The children are encouraged to critique how the individual is being treated and suggest ways to connect with that person, based on finding a shared identity. These scenarios are intentionally adaptable to allow schools to cover specific areas of discrimination - eg, sexism, xenophobia, racism, homophobia, Islamophobia, etc.

During the early stages of implementation, I worked with the school to ensure that the lessons were tailored to staff needs. We discussed modelling the lessons before they were used. To begin, I taught one of the lessons to a class while the staff responsible for the year group observed. This was to ensure that all staff felt comfortable tackling any difficult subject matter and to show them the intended outcomes for pupils.

After viewing this, the staff were asked to fill in feedback forms to assess whether they felt that these lessons could be helpful to children and if they would feel comfortable teaching the lessons, and to gain feedback on how to change or improve the structure to ensure accessibility for people new to the concept of multiple identities.

Overall, the feedback was very positive, though it did highlight some challenges that led to further alterations before the lessons were made more widely available.

Firstly, while all teachers surveyed supported the idea of teaching multiple identities in the classroom and felt this could be beneficial, some raised fears regarding complaints from parents. They stated that teaching children ideas regarding embracing diversity that were not necessarily supported at home could lead to difficulties. Another staff member questioned whether NQTs would feel comfortable teaching content that contained controversial issues.

In response to the latter note, I added a lot more information to the bottom of PowerPoint presentations to ensure that as much guidance as possible was offered for the teacher. I also encouraged other schools that wanted to use these lessons to have a period of demonstration for NQTs and PGCE students to ensure that they felt safe and comfortable teaching the content.

In regards to the first issue, while everyone has a right to their political opinions, the Ofsted commitment to British values protects any teacher who encourages children to show respect and tolerance to those around them, and so school and staff would be protected by their own policies against parent complaints.

As this investigation started only recently, it is impossible to say whether teaching multiple identities will change the children’s interactions in the long term. However, in the short term, my research does support the idea that gains have been made. After teaching the resources in several schools, I asked teachers to give feedback a month later on the question: did the lessons impact the students and their interactions with one another? The responses have indicated notable progress.

Laura Long, assistant head of Henry Green Primary School in East London, stated: “Pupils developed an understanding of a variety of different communities and how they could belong to more than one of them. Children were more respectful to others and it gave them the language and confidence to talk about their identities together. Learners recognised that a sense of belonging and mutual respect for different communities were important for our school, the local community and wider world.”

Clare D’Netto and Shern Virdi, head and deputy head of Manor Junior School respectively, also commented: “The programme of lessons taught supported our pupils in discovering the complexity of ‘self’ within a multicultural society. It helps pupils to explore how they can belong within the many communities that they inhabit. Discussions are meaningful and structured, and pupils leave lessons with a sense of wellbeing and the tools to challenge.”

Due to this promising early data, all schools in my borough now have access to the resources via our local authority website. In addition, around 20 schools have integrated the lessons into the personal, social, health and economic curriculum for pupils from Year 3 to Year 6.

While I am hoping to track the progress of pupils from the project this year, I am keen to expand it. East London (where the research was based) is a specific type of context and highly diverse, I would be very interested in trialling these resources in other areas of the UK or even other countries to see if their message remains useful and relevant to pupils in different geographical and cultural contexts.

Elizabeth Kitto is a Prevent education officer in East London

If you would like to participate in the study, visit: bit.ly/TesKS2communities

This article originally appeared in the 24 July 2020 issue under the headline “Tackle racism with lessons about our multiple identities”