What do students know and understand about the Holocaust?

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Encountering representations of the Holocaust
Where do students encounter the
Holocaust both within and beyond
school?
Classroom encounters with the Holocaust
As described in Chapter 3, 77 per cent of all
students who took part in the survey indicated that
they had already learned about the Holocaust at
school; 7.8 per cent of students were uncertain and
15.2 per cent indicated that they had not (see Figure
3.12). The highest proportion of students who had
not yet learned about the Holocaust were in Years 7
and 8, as is illustrated in Figure 4.1.
For schools following the national curriculum,
compulsory content on the Holocaust must be
delivered within Key Stage 3 history, that is before
students reach the end of Year 9. As Figure 4.1 also
demonstrates, within each year group from Year 10
onwards, more than 85 per cent of students think or
are sure that they have learned about the Holocaust
within school.
It is perhaps more surprising and significant to
note that, even in Years 7 and 8 (ages 11 to 13), 46.8
per cent and 63.1 per cent of students, respectively,
thought they had already learned about the
Holocaust within school. Yet the 2009 research with
teachers reported that, within the history curriculum
at least, teachers were unlikely to introduce the
subject to students before Year 9 (Pettigrew et al.
2009). The students who indicated that they had
already learned about the Holocaust were asked
if they could remember how old they were when
they first encountered the subject within school. As
Figure 4.2 illustrates, among the 5,626 students who
responded to this question, 67.2 per cent believed
they had learned about the Holocaust before they
had reached Year 9: 21.9 per cent thought they had
done so in Year 8, 16.8 per cent in Year 7 and 28.5
per cent while still in primary school.
The relatively high proportion of students who
reported that they first learned about the Holocaust
in primary school is significant. In the United States,
Simone Schweber (2006, 2008b) has observed
a tendency for the Holocaust to be introduced to
students at earlier and earlier stages in their school
career, a phenomenon she terms ‘curricular creep’.
Schweber warns that, if this is not managed carefully,
it may lead to unsystematic and repetitive coverage
of the subject which could in turn contribute to a
sense of ‘Holocaust fatigue’ (see also Short 2003).
She also suggests that confronting younger students
with this difficult history raises specific pedagogical
challenges and ethical tensions, and notes that there
is – as of yet – very little empirical evidence of or
reflection upon ‘what the Holocaust looks like when
taught to a young audience’ (Schweber 2008b:
2,073). For noteable exceptions in the UK context,
see Cowan and Maitles (1999, 2002).
While primary school students are not the focus
of the current study, arguably many of Schweber’s
observations and concerns also hold for curricular
exposure to the Holocaust within the earliest years
of secondary school. In this context it is interesting
to note that a number of students interviewed
expressed the opinion that young people should only
be taught about the subject ‘at an age when [they]
are more emotionally ready to take in the concept of
what actually happened‘ (Stephanie, Year 13, SE2).
Figure 4.1 Student responses to survey question 69, ‘Have you learned about the Holocaust in school?’
(percentage by year group)
Percentages below 5 per cent are not labelled on the chart
Year 7
Percentage of students
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
29.1
17.7 13.0
19.4
20.8
Year 8
46.0
17.1
11.0
16.9
9.0
Year 9
68.6
14.7
7.0
6.0
Year 10
75.9
14.3
5.2
Year 11
77.9
12.0
5.1
Year 12
70.5
15.8
5.7
Year 13
■ Yes, definitely ■ Yes, I think so ■ Maybe ■ No, I don’t think so ■ No, definitely not
77.9
9.9