Moral Disengagement and Building Resilience to Violent Extremism: An Education Intervention
Author(s):
The purpose of this article is to summarize the pilot of an educational intervention for countering violent extremism titled Beyond Bali Education Resource. The Beyond Bali program draws on social science research in an attempt to build resilience to violent extremism in an educational setting though moral disengagement. The Beyond Bali model had four main goals: 1) to provide students with tools to critically assess violent extremism, 2) to raise awareness and education on the social impacts of violent extremism, 3) to encourage students to assess how society can resist the narrative of violent extremism, and 4) to engage students through discussion/activities about the Bali Peace Park as a response. These four goals were carried out through five separate Modules with separate activities geared towards one of those goals. This article captures what is, in many ways, one of the first educational interventions for countering violent extremism globally. However, since it is still in its beginning stages, the Beyond Bali program’s effectiveness in preventing violent extremism is only measured in student feedback, and the evidence for change remains only anecdotal.

