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Socioscientific issues (SSIs) can provide a context to address societal decision‐making processes in school. In recent years, studies have demonstrated that one effective way to deal with these topics is through role play. However, role plays may induce an unreflected attitude change based on the roles the participants take on, which raises ethical concerns about indoctrination. To explain this change of attitude, we applied the Transportation‐Imagery Model. We asked if transportation into a role play would bring about a change of attitude and behavior. Furthermore, we investigated whether the perspective of the prepared or performed characters affected transportation and the direction of an attitude change. The research was conducted in Germany with a sample of 256 secondary‐school students (Mage = 16.9 years, SDage = 1.5, 68% female). We found that transportation affected neither attitude change nor behavior. There was also no effect of the prepared or performed characters' perspective on transportation or attitude change. This suggests that role play does not constitute a form of manipulation and can be used as a learning method for SSIs without reservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does the Putin regime have an ideology? This question has attracted renewed attention since Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Some scholars claim that the war is directly linked to the Putin regime’s ideological aspirations to restore Russia’s greatness and challenge the West internationally, while others argue that contemporary regimes in the “Putinist mold” have limited need for ideology and use wars instrumentally for survival purposes rather than messianic aspirations. In this paper we will, first, review arguments pro and contra ideology under the Putin regime and identify existing gaps in such literature: definitional ambiguity, conflation of concepts of totalitarianism and ideology, overfocusing on ideal types of ideology, and so forth. Second, we will offer operationalizable metrics against which the ideology is measured: coherence of ideological repertoire, temporal consistency, elite commitment, codification, indoctrination, internalization, and futuristic vision. This paper finds that the current Putin regime checks most of the ideological boxes (even if it has not necessarily always been the case historically). Lastly, we will conclude by discussing the implications of our findings to the analysis of contemporary autocracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines teachers' understandings of affective indoctrination in a conflict-affected society, focusing on how teachers' political orientations are entangled with these understandings. The exploration is conducted through a qualitative study of Greek-Cypriot primary and secondary school teachers who are identified as either conservative or progressive. The findings highlight that regardless of political orientation, teachers interpret the term indoctrination through a negative lens. However, teachers of progressive orientation view affective indoctrination as a part of everyday educational practices, whereas teachers of conservative orientation understand affective indoctrination as an exceptional case. The paper discusses the implications for teaching and teacher education. The relevance of teachers' political orientation makes it all the more necessary that teachers and teacher educators delve deeper into the political and pedagogical implications of the entanglement between political orientations and understandings of affective indoctrination in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amid debates about CRT in education, this paper critically analyses laws that have reportedly sought to expand ‘education on racism, bias, the contributions of specific racial or ethnic groups to U.S. history, or related topics’ with the hypothesis that there would be little evidence of anti-racist ideology in policies pertaining to curriculum. The research design thus leans on King and Chandler’s (2016) distinction between non-racist and antiracist stances, as well as Andreotti et al’.s (2015) social cartography that maps out ‘soft-reform’ and ‘radical reform’ spaces, to achieve a latent content analysis of 14 pieces of legislation across 13 states since 2020 to identify and analyse the ideological characteristics of these pieces of legislation. Only four of the 14 documents from four different states contain a significant anti-racist ideological leaning; the others express a liberal multicultural ideological position that celebrates difference and recognizes contributions, but does not examine systemic racism. Thus, among states that are legislating more ethnic studies, the vast majority do not legislate anti-racist positions. This paper concludes that there is little evidence of anti-racist ideas being legislated into primary and secondary education in the United States, and that most curricular reforms toe a non-critical ideological line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1980 military coup in Turkey enormously impacted state-citizen relations, including in the realm of education. After the coup, all school rituals, ceremonies, classrooms, and after-school activities were re-defined through laws and regulations to indoctrinate the dominant state ideology, Atatürkism (Atatürkçülük). This article attempts to shed light on this socialization strategy. It refers relies on an oral history of student testimonies from different socio-economic, religious, and ethnic backgrounds. The testimonies reveal the weaknesses of the system. In particular, the excessive emphasis on Atatürk’s personality and the denial of the Kurdish identity appeared as the most significant fragilities of the system. In addition, the exclusion of non-Muslim citizens from the definition of Turkishness and their feeling of being singled out may be seen as another deficiency of post-1980 state-society relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While a breadth of U.S. scholarship on gangs/gang violence exists, there is currently scant research about the psychological/indoctrination processes used to transform civilians into gang members, especially from a Canadian perspective. To address this gap in the literature this article draws on the military scholarship relating to intense indoctrination to (a) inform our understanding of how youth are psychologically transformed/indoctrinated into a street/gang life, (b) the psychological/traumatic impact of such indoctrination, and (c) the role street indoctrination plays in young people's capacity to survive a gang life. This article draws on autoethnography to enable the author, a former gang/justice-involved person, to provide an up-close, reflexive, and intimate perspective into "street indoctrination." Such a perspective is often missing from the extant gang scholarship as few formerly gang-involved persons are able to speak about their experiences from the privileged space of academia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that North Korea uses political propaganda to elicit popular support, and this article focuses on how primary and secondary schools play an essential role in conveying the regime's messages. The article asks how this process shapes North Koreans' perceptions towards citizenship and how their perceptions of 'democracy' differ from those in other parts of the world. School education, I argue, socialises North Koreans and shapes their everyday political attitudes and citizenship perceptions. This study examines 32 North Korean Socialist Moral textbooks and identifies four core regime messages embedded in these texts: Personality Cult education in relation to the Kims, promoting socialism, fostering nationalism, and cultivating communitarianism and collectivism. I propose that these regime messages positively and negatively affect perceptions of democratic citizenship. Messages that promote communitarianism can encourage North Koreans to engage in democratic politics, but messages about political leadership, nationalism, and collectivism can hamper North Koreans' understanding of democracy and their capacity to develop democratic norms. This study has implications for research into how North Korean defectors are integrated into democratic South Korea, suggesting that these defectors' longstanding exposure to authoritarian education in North Korea will necessarily influence how they conceive of democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the rise of various fringe movements in recent years, from anti-vaxxers to QAnon, there has been increased public and scholarly attention to misinformation and conspiracy theories and the online communities that produce them. However, efforts at understanding the radicalisation process largely focus on those who go on to commit violent crimes. This article draws on three waves of research exploring the experiences of individuals currently or formerly involved in fringe communities, including the different stages of investment they progressed through, and ultimately, what made people leave. We propose a pathway model for understanding contemporary online radicalisation, including potential interventions that could be safely made at each stage. Insight into the experience of being immersed in these communities is essential for engaging with these people empathetically, and therefore preventing both the emergence of violent terrorists and protecting vulnerable people from being drawn into these communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In popular management literature corporations are sometimes loosely compared to cults. The comparison is a severe allegation as it implies the transgression of subordinate employees' integrity. This paper explores to what extent such comparisons with cults are warranted as well as the implications this has for the practice of corporate culture management. On grounds of the author's unique, first-hand experience in both corporate and cultic environments a retrospective autoethnographic (RAE) approach was chosen to further explore the supposed resemblance. The comparison is structured along Lifton's eight criteria of thought reform and reveals that although akin to cults in all aspects corporations also fundamentally differ due to the infeasibility, at least for now, of controlling the corporate environment in totalist fashion. This might explain why so many attempts to change corporate cultures fail as these initiatives are based on the anachronistic idea that culture change can be "implemented" by somehow "inculcating" employees with "company values." A sanitized form of brainwashing that fails in the corporate environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The story of Hungary can also serve as a warning for other nation-states on the European continent, as the years from 1989 to 1991 were a time of liberation for all the people of Eastern Europe who suffered from totalitarian political systems and ideological indoctrination. As the Bible teaches and Hannah Arendt warns, liberation is not yet liberty. The institutions of liberty have to be constituted, and people need to learn how to make them work while breathing spirit into them. Tyrannies always collapse, but whether Hungarians can escape with enough means for a new start remains to be seen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Universitas, Revista de Ciencias Sociales y Humanas is the property of Universidad Politecnica Salesiana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In Children, Religion and the Ethics of Influence , John Tillson argues that initiating children into religion is morally wrong. His argument overlaps and intersects at various points with my own argument against confessional religious education in schools. In this brief reply I consider two notable differences between our arguments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Children, Religion and the Ethics of Influence , John Tillson sets out a clear and convincing case for the view that children ought not to be initiated into religious faith by their parents or others with the relevant 'extra-parental responsibilities'. However, by predicating his thesis on an understanding of illegitimate religious influence that largely equates initiation into faith with the inculcation of a distinctive type of propositional content, I contend that Tillson misses some of the potential harms such initiation may engender. Here I briefly explain why this is a problem before suggesting three ways he might respond to the criticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the Second World War, sports communities in the areas incorporated into Poland became more active. The influx of settlers led to the creation of new organizations, which were based on prewar organizational patterns and traditions. Right from the outset, the People's Government utilized athletes for political and propaganda purposes. This was primarily aimed at integrating the 'Recovered Territories' with the rest of the country, a process that unfolded notably in Szczecin, the main urban center in Western Pomerania. The governing power harnessed the enthusiasm and zeal of the youth, along with the belief that sports are apolitical. Following the adaptation of the organizational structure of sports to the Soviet model, the mass indoctrination of sports communities commenced in 1950. The Communists began leveraging activists and athletes without constraints to promote a new ideology, with the goal of aligning society with the state policy of that era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rise of authoritarian politics across the globe, echoes of a fascist past are with us once again signaling a looming and dangerous threat to education and democracy. This essay argues that is it crucial to engage fascism both as a language of white supremacy and a politics of disconnection. If fascism is to be addressed both politically and educationally, it is crucial to address its underlying political, educational, and economic elements comprehensively as part of a broad politics. Any viable mode of resistance to fascism in its upgraded forms must not only make education central to politics but also analyze the problems it produces and its root causes in their interconnections and as part of a wider totality of power and exclusion. Fascism is normalized in a capitalist order when its diverse economic, political and social problems appear fragmented, disconnected, and are treated in isolation. This essay argues against this form of normalization and critiques the relationship between fascism and capitalism and its politics of diversion by examining how a number of crucial issues are often wrongly dealt with in isolation. It concludes by demonstrating how a politics that is comprehensive and interrelated provides a language to rethink how fascism can be made visible and resisted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

La interaction, creation, and dissemination of digital content on the internet generates a certain anguish in those who believed to control information in their environments, especially when they think about the amount of information available in this new digital society. It is a form of voluntary servitude that limits the freedom of cyber humanity, because according to Étienne de la Boétie, societies allow a single man, who governs, to control people's lives. Therefore, all the data available on the internet could establish an unprecedented propagandistic process with the sole purpose of indoctrination and tyranny. These forms of manipulation are nothing more than the inversion of social necessity. Unfortunately, in current times, these mechanisms are based on fake news, cancel culture, and other strategies of psychopolitics that are equally based on obedience messages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Teoría y Praxis is the property of Editorial Universidad Don Bosco and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article analyses the use of sound -- music, noise, and vocalization -- within the context of politically motivated violence in Belarus since 2020. The goal of this study is to analyze the sonic violence practices and map their range. The first part of the text reviews literature about the use of sound and music for public space control, political indoctrination and "re-education", interrogations, tortures, and executions by various -- not only authoritarian -- political regimes. The concept of sonic violence used in the following analysis, allows studying the use of musical and non-musical sounds, and focusing not only on external sonic influence but also on victims' own voices weaponized and used against them. Since 2020, Belarusian pro-democratic media and human rights initiatives have gathered hundreds of interviews with people who underwent harsh treatment and violence from "law enforcers". Many witnesses mention experiencing forced listening, speaking, chanting, singing, and other kinds of sonic violence. The article's second part presents a qualitative analysis of publications in independent and state-funded media (2020-2023), reports of human rights NGOs, as well as other empirical materials (audio recordings, participant observations) that identify situations where sound, music, and vocalization were used by various Belarusian state agents in a coercive or violent context. Coding and categorizing such cases allows creating a typology that can be mapped as a continuum -- according to the character, intensity, duration, and impact of violent techniques and traumatic experiences caused by them. This is the first study of sonic violence in contemporary Belarus, that not only shows its widespread and systemic character, but also analyzes its forms and strategies used to counteract it. The study shows the place of the current Belarusian events in the history and genealogy of sonic violence, revealing parallels with similar practices of other political regimes, both contemporary and historical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Research has shown that excessive sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption has been associated with being overweight and obese and the military is not immune to this disorder. Being overweight/obese is one of the characteristics that comprise a condition known as Metabolic Syndrome (MetS). The global prevalence of MetS in the military population is estimated to be 21%, which varies depending upon the armed forces type and specialty. The purpose of this study is to identify the subset of the aviation population that may develop MetS at some future point and to put forth suggestions on how best to combat this and maintain operational readiness. METHODS: Data were collected by means of an anonymous 44-item survey administered and completed by 302 students enrolled in Aviation Preflight Indoctrination at the Naval Air Station Base in Pensacola, FL. RESULTS: Results indicated that 70.86% of students reported SSB consumption, with 95.3% preferring caffeinated to decaffeinated SSBs. 11.7% of personnel met the "at risk criteria" of consuming SSBs four times per week or greater (four 12-oz cans or more per week). DISCUSSION: Findings from this study indicate that approximately 11.7% of aviation pilots or flight officers are "at risk" of developing MetS. Given that it takes up to 4 yr to train a new fighter pilot, this could become a significant readiness issue on par with the impact seen with pilots leaving the services through natural attrition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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doTERRA and Young Living are multi-level marketing (MLM) companies sustained by distribution networks of women who sell their trademark essential oil products. We argue that women join essential oil MLMs based on an iterative, three-pronged strategy that not only recruits women as oil distributors but also simultaneously indoctrinates them to pastel QAnon conspiracy spaces: digitally driven, feminized realms situated at the nexus of New Age spirituality, wellness, and far-right ideologies. MLM distributors first compel women to look toward essential oils as a viable medical intervention by leveraging potential recruits' distrust with medical establishments and hardship produced by intersecting structural inequalities (classism, racism, ableism, sexism). Women are then hooked in by promises of essential oils offering silver-bullet solutions to complex problems stemming from inequitable social systems. Finally, women get downlined into pastel QAnon disinformation flows through algorithmic production of confirmation bias. By coding qualitative data of MLM distributors and pastel QAnon influencers for digital content analysis, we identify socio-cultural and gendered trends of disinformation production at the intersections of wellness, pastel QAnon, and structural inequalities. These findings provide insights into the seductive appeal of disinformation beyond the textual content of the message and contribute to our understanding of the larger political economy of incentives and rewards that perpetuate disinformation-for-hire communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Nazi propaganda was so powerful and allowed so little room for deviation that its consequences remain incontestably palpable today: 'Germans who grew up under the Nazi regime are much more anti-Semitic than those born before or after that period: the share of committed anti-Semites, who answer a host of questions about attitudes toward Jews in an extreme fashion, is 2-3 times higher than in the population as a whole. Zagzebski's main argument against those employing the Nazi example is her belief that Nazis would change their beliefs if they reflected consciously on their admiration: 'Nazis could have figured out that there was something wrong with Hitler by comparing him with other persons they admired... A Nazi who is conscientious in my sense would reflect upon his admiration for Hitler, compare Hitler with other persons he admires, and compare his reaction to Hitler with the emotions of others he trusts' ([39], p. 48). Through it, the Nazi party was able to condition the population in Nazi Germany to admire certain non-virtuous agents (e.g. Hitler) and certain non-virtuous "ideals"(e.g. One could employ Koonz's ([18]) study to defend Zagzebski's ([39]) theory and argue that the Nazi indoctrination program allowed room for Nazis to admire some of the same people that we admire. [Extracted from the article]

Several decades after the abolishment of the formal slave trade, the administrative colonisation of Africa by Europe, and the adoption of progressive international human rights laws for equality, there is no doubt that pro-social justice education is facing a massive backlash from the far right globally. As critical diversity studies teaching and learning practitioners and facilitators, we address how the normative order seeks to legitimise anti-social justice discourses using invalidated assumptions, including the myth that critical theoretical education employs indoctrination. We show how our work is about making visible the baseless and groundless nature of arguments made by the far right in their dismissal of critical theory (CT). Using experiences from teaching and learning in the Theories of Diversity, Otherness & Difference postgraduate course at the Wits Centre for Diversity Studies (WiCDS), we show how CT is a pivotal pedagogical banister for the 21st century. A banister is a support structure along the rails of a staircase. CT in critical diversity studies (CDS) incorporates antifoundational thinking, which assumes no fixed theoretical resting place as this simplifies the complexity of diversity issues. Overall, this article concludes that far from being a form of 'indoctrination', as is argued by the far right, CT is a useful pedagogical banister for our existence in the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been dozens of papers published on the misrepresentation of psychological studies and theories (e.g., omitting criticisms) presented in introductory textbooks. Authors of these papers have offered numerous explanations for the errors including limited space for covering criticisms and the desire among textbook authors to "sell" psychological science to an introductory audience. In the present article, several studies and theories, most of which have been identified in previous research as misrepresented in introductory psychology textbooks, are reviewed. The possibility of ideological bias contributing to the misrepresentation is considered. The bias in introductory psychology is considered in the context of wider concerns about the consequences of political homogeneity in the field. Suggestions for reducing bias in introductory psychology textbooks and courses are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bartels (2023; this issue) argues that (a) classic studies and topics covered in psychological textbooks and introductory classes are often misrepresented, (b) that there is an ideological bias among scholars in psychology towards the left side of the political spectrum, and (c) this bias is responsible for the misrepresentation of studies and topics in textbooks. In our commentary, we argue that claims (a) and (b) may be correct, but they have nothing to do with each other. Thus, claim (c) – that a liberal bias among scholars and course instructors leads to "indoctrination" in introductory courses and textbooks – is unsubstantiated and actually detrimental. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This commentary describes a set of academic, social, and financial factors that provide a context for Jared Bartel's article in which he claims that students in introductory psychology in North America are being indoctrinated by instructors who present socio-politically biased coverage of controversial areas of psychological research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bartels gives some good examples of 'liberal' or 'left-wing' bias in introductory textbooks and suggests that one of the ways to ameliorate this is to adopt a more heterodox approach. This comment suggests that to achieve this very desirable end that psychologists need to look critically at the philosophical assumptions which influence their professional thinking. They must ask, 'What is our concept of a human being?' otherwise they will unthinkingly reflect the philosophical assumptions of victimhood culture that see human beings as diminished, vulnerable individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues for the need of a new, pragmatic response to claims of indoctrination in public school classrooms across the United States. While attempts at defining indoctrination and moral arguments for and against certain pedagogical practices may be worthwhile, the article maintains that claims of indoctrination, whether substantive or not, are an impediment to effective teaching, especially for educators who are primarily interested in perspective transformation. Drawing on recent scholarship regarding epiphany and transformative education, an argument is presented that teaching for epiphanic experience may be a pragmatic solution for teachers to adopt to remain effective in the classroom amid ever-increasing political polarization and professional scrutiny. After establishing this point, the article turns to arts education as a possible source for understanding the pedagogical technique that may lead to the creation of a classroom ethos for epiphany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how Hernando de Talavera (1428–1507), the first bishop of Granada, used the cast sculptures of the Virgin commissioned by Queen Isabella the Castile (1451–1504), for the parishes of the Albayzín, the Morisco quarter, as an essential tool for his missionary activity among Granada’s native Islamic population. It enquires how Talavera granted these Marian cast sculptures a central role in the Albayzin’s liturgical celebration, mediating their interpretation by devotional texts, such as his Marian liturgical works or his translation and commentary of the Vita Christi of the Franciscan Francesc Eiximenis (1327–1409), through which he wished to present these images as representations of an ‘Islamicate’ vision of Mary, as an enlightened prophetess who would function as the ideal preacher to instruct the newly converted Morisco population in the principles of their new faith. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose—The article seeks to determine what prevented North Koreans’ collective resistance against their leadership in the late 1980s when many of their East European comrades revolted. Approach—North Korea, Romania, and Albania were historically and comparatively analyzed in terms of some totalitarian traits. Romania and Albania were selected because they eventually diverged from North Korea with the anti-regime uprisings of their populations. What most distinguishes the North Korean political system from these other regimes is the sheer longevity of its existence, and one aspect of totalitarian regimes, isolation, more than physical control and indoctrination, seems to be the major cause of this divergence. However, the three elements reinforce one another. Findings—The ruling regimes of Romania and Albania, though unusually repressive by East European standards, were ultimately unsuccessful in isolating their populations from outside contact, whereas in North Korea, ordinary citizens have hardly been able to realize that their socioeconomic problems are a result of the policies of the country’s top leadership. Practical Implications—Organized dissent was unthinkable in North Korea for multiple reasons, and the people’s drive for revolution may begin to awaken if the thick blanket of isolation is lifted by the outside world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]