What do students know and understand about the Holocaust?

Appendix 3: Coding frameworks for free-text questions
251
Table A3.2 Examples of students’ answers to survey question 30, and how they were coded
Student answer Victims Perpetrators Actions Date Scale Additional coding
The Holocaust was during world war 2. This
was when the Nazis kept Jewish people in
concentration camps.
The Holocaust was the killing of around 6
million Jews, in world war 2, mainly because
Hitler didn’t like them.
The Holocaust was the isolation and killing of
the Jewish people of Germany by the Nazis.
The Nazi’s were led by Hitler; they also killed
other large groups of people who they thought
were less superior to themselves. For example
homosexuals and the disabled.
The Holocaust was an attempt by the Nazis
to wipe out the Jewish race because they
didn’t believe in their ways and thought
they were vermin.
2 2 1 2 0 N/A
2 2 2 2 2 Brief explanation
given
2 2 2 0 0 Identified
Germany
2 2 2 0 0
Totality of
genocidal intent
mentioned.
Explanation given.
Coding framework for survey
question 40
Students’ answers to the question ‘Who were the
victims of the Holocaust?’ were coded in two stages.
In the first stage, students’ answers were given a
code from 0 to 4, as follows:
0. If they had not answered this question
1. Jews, Jewish people, the Jewish, etc.
2. Inaccurate answers, e.g. ‘suffragettes’
3. Reference to any other victim group(s)
without reference to the Jews
4. Jews and other victim groups identified.
In stage two of the coding, answers that were
coded as a ‘4’ in stage one (that is, Jews and
other victim groups) were given additional codes to
indicate which other victim groups the students had
identified, as follows:
1. Disabled people / people with physical disabilities
2. Roma / Sinti / Gypsies
3. Homosexuals
4. Jehovah’s Witnesses
5. Poles / Polish people
6. Black people
7. People with mental health problems
8. Any other groups named
Coding framework for survey
question 42
Students’ answers to the question ‘Who was
responsible for the Holocaust?’ were typically brief
and identified specific person(s) and/or groups.
Consequently, their answers were coded from 0 to
11 to show the persons/groups they identified:
If they had not answered this question
1. Hitler
2. Hitler, the SS and/or named individual(s)
(Goebbels, Himmler, etc.)
3. Hitler and the Nazis
4. Hitler, the Nazis and the SS
5. Hitler, the Nazis and Germany
6. Hitler and the Germans / Germany
7. Nazis (with no direct reference to Hitler)
8. Germans / German people / Germany
9. Nazis and Germans
10. Inaccurate answer
11. Accurate and/or relevant answer not
outlined above
www.ioe.ac.uk/holocaust