What do students know and understand about the Holocaust?

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Considerations and recommendations
Key recommendations:
I. Teaching and learning
1. It bears repetition that, as with most school
subjects, teaching and learning about the
Holocaust should begin with an acknowledgement
of what students (think they) already know. If
teachers are cognisant of some of the likely
limitations and inaccuracies in students’ prior
conceptions, attention can instructively be focused
on supporting students in recognising and
addressing these.
2. With only partial, and in some cases inaccurate,
historical knowledge and understanding, it is
difficult for students to identify limitations in or
to challenge dominant cultural narratives of
the Holocaust. Ensuring that students have
broader, deeper and more secure substantive
knowledge must be a priority. This requires
closer ties between the academic community
and the classroom, such as university-led teacher
development and creation of classroom resources.
3. Alongside prioritising secure knowledge
acquisition, the problematic popular discourses
that currently frame much of students’
understanding themselves require recognition
and redress. This should occasion open and
honest dialogue about the purpose of Holocaust
remembrance and Holocaust education in
contemporary Britain.
4. Substantive knowledge needs to be developed
in conjunction with conceptual understandings.
This relates to key concepts such as ‘camps’,
‘antisemitism’, ‘ghettos’, ‘the Nazis’, second-order
concepts like causation and significance, as well
geographical and chronological frameworks.
5. Students’ knowledge and understanding of Britain’s
relationship to the Holocaust reflects popular
myths and mythologies. Improving students’
understanding of Britain’s historical links with the
Holocaust – warts and all – is key if these common
misconceptions are not to be perpetuated.
6. These issues will not be addressed simply through
‘more education’. New approaches to teaching
and learning are necessary – approaches which
are research-informed, rooted in the historical
record and centred on pedagogy.
7. Students must be helped in confronting the
challenging realities of the Holocaust, not
primed in mantras and maxims. This requires a
development of their critical faculties. Criticality,
independent thinking and reflexivity should
be promoted alongside improving students’
emotional literacy.
II. Teachers’ professional development
This research study has revealed that most students
who have studied the Holocaust at school do
not have a clear understanding of some of its
most fundamental aspects, and few are able to
critically explore its relevance and significance for
contemporary society. Teachers require considerable
knowledge and expertise to robustly address these
limited understandings and to confidently challenge
common myths and misconceptions.
Unfortunately, our national study into teaching
about the Holocaust revealed that many teachers
found it a complex subject to teach effectively
(Pettigrew et al. 2009). For example, the study
showed teachers’ widespread confusion over aims,
their uncertainty about definitions of the Holocaust
and a paucity of subject knowledge. Many teachers
appeared to have derived their knowledge from
popular culture rather than academic sources and
very few had received any specialist professional
development in how to teach about the Holocaust.
Strikingly, 83 per cent of teachers declared
themselves to be ‘self-taught’ (that is, they had not
participated in any professional development since
they began teaching) and almost half of the 2,108
teachers surveyed reported that they struggled to
teach this complex subject effectively. Furthermore,
many teachers found it difficult to articulate the
distinct historical significance of the Holocaust. More
regularly, the Holocaust was framed by teachers in
terms of ‘universal lessons’ often divorced from any
historical context.
On a more positive note, 93 per cent of history
teachers agreed ‘it will always be important to teach
about the Holocaust’ and 86 per cent asserted it
was right that the Holocaust should be a compulsory
part of the National Curriculum. Many teachers
expressed a strong professional commitment to
teaching about the Holocaust effectively and 78
per cent welcomed the opportunity to engage in
specialist professional development focused on
teaching and learning about the Holocaust.
Given the limitations in classroom practice and the
commitment among teachers to improve teaching
and learning revealed by the 2009 research, the
question remains about what continuing professional
development (CPD) is needed. It would not be
appropriate to detail here all the possibilities that exist
for meaningful professional development but, based
on the findings of this new research with students,
it is instructive to outline five areas of need for
investment in high-quality CPD and its content:
1. improve students’ knowledge and understanding
2. challenge accepted representations of the
Holocaust