What do students know and understand about the Holocaust?

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Considerations and recommendations
obstacles to this prospect:
1. lack of guidance
2. lack of an assessment framework
3. lack of curriculum time for learning about the
Holocaust in history
4. increase in schools that do not follow the
National Curriculum.
1. Lack of guidance
Although learning about the Holocaust is mandated
in the curriculum, no official guidance exists on
what should be taught, how it should be taught or
how much time teachers should spend teaching
about the subject. Practice consequently varies
considerably, as was demonstrated in the Centre’s
2009 study of teachers (Pettigrew et al. 2009). For
example, some schools teach the Holocaust in just
one hour of curriculum time per year, while others
devote considerably more classroom time to the
subject (the average in Year 9 is six hours per year).
Furthermore, the way in which the Holocaust is
taught depends crucially on the expertise of the
teacher. As the Centre’s 2009 study demonstrated,
most teachers appear not to have appropriate
professional development and many found teaching
about the Holocaust a difficult proposition.
2. Lack of an assessment framework
Study of the Holocaust is not underpinned by any
national assessment framework and, as a result,
no accepted mechanism exists for evaluating what
students know about the Holocaust or the effect that
any curriculum model might have on their knowledge
and understanding. Furthermore, teachers’ reticence
towards assessing students’ learning about the
Holocaust, reported by the Centre’s 2009 research,
was chiefly the result of their lacking expertise in
what form appropriate assessment should take.
Once again, how the curriculum is enacted and
assessed in schools varies considerably, and robust
systems to ensure high-quality teaching and learning
about the Holocaust do not exist.
3. Lack of curriculum time for learning
about the Holocaust in history
The persistent squeeze on curriculum time available
for history also has an impact on how the Holocaust
is taught in schools. Although history features in
most school curricula, calls for improved standards in
core subjects – mainly maths, English, science – over
the past three decades has led to a typical decrease
in the time allocated to history (Canadine et al. 2011).
In addition, many schools now adopt a two-year Key
Stage 3 curriculum (as opposed to the traditional
three-year curriculum), so that students can begin
working towards their GCSEs a year earlier. This has
effectively reduced curriculum time for history, as
those not intending to take a history GCSE drop out
of history lessons in Year 9 (the recommended year
for learning about the Holocaust).
Some comfort may be derived from the fact
that the Holocaust is often taught in subjects
beyond history and so exposure to the subject
is occasionally strengthened in other parts of the
curriculum. For example, the 2009 report indicated
that the Holocaust was often taught in English and
religious education lessons. However, the Holocaust
is not mandated in any subjects other than history,
and curriculum time is far from guaranteed.
Once again, practice varies considerably and,
without careful curriculum planning, it is possible
that tensions and contradictions will exist between
how the Holocaust is taught in history and in other
curriculum areas. For example, study of The Boy in
Striped Pyjamas in English lessons may be at odds
with what is taught in the history classroom.
4. Increase in schools that do not follow
the National Curriculum
Arguably the most serious potential challenge to
the study of the Holocaust is the increasing number
of schools that do not have to teach the subject.
Following a series of educational reforms, including
the Academies Act of 2010, secondary schools that
become academies no longer have to follow the
National Curriculum for history and, by extension, no
longer have to teach about the Holocaust.
The number of secondary schools across England
that have converted to academy status has grown
exponentially in recent years – while whereas 203
academies existed in May 2010, by June 2015 the
figure had risen to 4,676 – and now a clear majority
of secondary schools are academies. It is too early
to assess the impact of this on school curriculum
practices in general and on teaching and learning
about the Holocaust in particular. Many academies
continue to implement the National Curriculum fully,
but it is only logical to assume that some will elect
not to include the Holocaust in their curriculum,
knowing that they are no longer mandated to teach it.
Indeed, evidence already exists to suggest that this
has happened in some secondary schools.
As a result of these four educational trends it is
legitimate to argue that the place of the Holocaust
in the secondary school curriculum for 11 to 14 year
olds is far from secure. Indeed, despite successive
governments’ apparent support for Holocaust
education, it is legitimate to argue that this area of
study is under increasing threat.