(2015). With Their Voice: Constructing Meaning with Digital Testimony. Social Education, v79 n2 p106-109 Mar-Apr. The use of testimony in teaching about the Holocaust has long been a practice, relying on resources such as memoirs, diaries, and audio recordings. Having first-person accounts provides a window into the experience of those who lived the historical events that now fill the pages of text. As we mark the 70th Anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, it becomes increasingly difficult to find survivors and witnesses to share their stories with students. The question of how these personal accounts will endure once the last survivor is no longer here is a pertinent issue in the field of Holocaust education. Though not equivalent to in-person accounts, video testimony can provide an important experience. This article describes the Visual History Archive of the USC Shoah Foundation, which houses over 53,000 testimonies of survivors and additional witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides. These full life histories have been collected from individuals in 61 countries and 39… [Direct]
(2009). Through Psychological Lenses: University Students' Reflections Following the "Psychology of the Holocaust" Course. Educational Review, v61 n1 p101-114 Feb. While Holocaust related activities and educational programs around the world are growing in number, published reports on their impact are scarce, especially on the university level. The free responses of 94 Jewish-Israeli university students who took the course "Psychology of the Holocaust" yielded eight themes. The results reflect a change of emphasis and movement from a mainly particularistic interpretation of the Holocaust to a more universalistic understanding of the Holocaust. This movement is explained by the occurrence of two reflective processes: situational and universal reflexivity of genocide and reflexivity regarding the personal and collective impact of genocide. (Contains 1 table and 4 notes.)… [Direct]
(2011). Violence, Genocide, and Captivity: Exploring Cultural Representations of Sacajawea as a Universal Mother of Conquest. American Indian Culture and Research Journal, v35 n4 p191-208. In this article, the author aims to \discover\ the actual Sacajawea. She intends to produce work that critiques colonialism in history and museums and to return the focus of the colonial gaze back to the colonizer. In this article, she talks about how colonial narratives of Sacajawea in popular culture justify conquest, heteropatriarchy, and the expansion of the United States while supporting the continued colonial management of Native peoples, erasure of Native national identities, and theft of Native lands. Currently, many of the visual representations of Native peoples are in films. Specifically, the author focuses on representations of Sacajawea in the film \Night at the Museum\ (2006) in order to deconstruct how Native peoples, and Native women in particular, are represented in modernity as Denise da Silva's affectable subjects facing obliteration by the horizon of death. She ends this article with a play written by Monique Mojica that counters the negative representations of… [Direct]
(2012). Teaching History with Comic Books: A Case Study of Violence, War, and the Graphic Novel. History Teacher, v45 n2 p169-188 Feb. In this essay, the authors present a case study that demonstrates how graphic novels can be utilized in the history classroom. More specifically, they discuss the benefits (and challenges) of using comic books to teach undergraduates about war and violence. While much of their discussion focuses on the historical particularities of Uganda, their ideas and experiences are likely to resonate with a wide variety of educators, both within and outside the discipline of history. There are a number of lesser-known, but equally compelling texts that explore war, displacement, and genocide in a variety of different contexts. Thus far, very little has been written about these less familiar comic books. This essay introduces readers to one such work–"Unknown Soldier," by Joshua Dysart and Alberto ponticelli, which the authors believe does an excellent job of complicating students' understanding of war and violence in Africa. (Contains 35 notes.)… [Direct]
(2009). From the Holocaust to Darfur: A Recipe for Genocide. Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education, v2 n1 p57-73. All too often, social studies teachers present the cruelty of the Holocaust as an isolated event. These units focus on Hitler, gas chambers, and war crimes and end with a defiant and honorable "Never again!" While covering mass murder in this way is laudable, it ultimately might not go as far as it could. For as teaches if we really want to empower our students to prevent genocide, we must look beyond the facts alone to the larger lessons these horrific events can teach us. It is with this background in mind that we wrote this chapter; that in order to teach our students to be good, we have the obligation to help them develop their own understandings of where and why society has fallen off the tracks. The idea of a recipe provided us with a way to help students understand the early warning signs of mass murder such that they would be better equipped to prevent them in the future. Doing so would hopefully inspire them not to be bystanders to any similar cruelty, both in the… [PDF]
(2008). Powerful and Authentic Digital Media and Strategies for Teaching about Genocide and the Holocaust. Social Studies, v99 n6 p260-264 Nov-Dec. The continued prominence of genocide and Holocaust education, along with the movement toward the affective in social studies curricula, the advent of the Internet, and continued scholarship in the field, has led to the availability of a staggering array of digital resources for teachers (D. S. Symer 2001). These resources have the potential to enhance genocide and Holocaust education by providing robust content resources and interactive opportunities for students to develop new skills and understanding. In this article, the authors identify new digital media resources and strategies that engage students in authentic learning experiences about genocide and the Holocaust. They use F. W. Newmann and G. G. Wehlage's (1993) framework for \authentic instruction.\ Using this framework, the authors identify digital media that engage students in moral and ethical valuing, emphasize historical inquiry, and are relevant to the world outside of school…. [Direct]
(2009). Rebuilding Rwanda: From Genocide to Prosperity through Education. Civic Enterprises Rwanda is on the verge of a breakthrough. Having weathered one of the worst humanitarian crises imaginable just fifteen years ago, and with an impoverished countryside plagued by HIV/AIDS, hunger, and malaria, Rwanda seems an unlikely place for an economic renaissance. Yet the nation's commitment to good government and support for free market solutions place it among the most likely countries to see rapid advancement in the coming decades. Such a future is far from guaranteed, and whether it comes to fruition depends largely on the country's system of education. For Rwanda, more than for almost any other country, education holds the key to the future. Rwanda is a small, landlocked country in Central Africa (about the size of Maryland) with a population of just more than 10 million people. With the highest population density of any African country and a high growth rate, Rwanda cannot depend on its natural resources for economic development. However, there are many reasons to be… [PDF]
(2007). Genocide Claiming a Larger Place in Middle and High School Lessons. Education Week, v27 n9 p1, 15 Oct. The debate in the U.S. House of Representatives over whether the mass killings of Armenians that began in 1915 should be declared \genocide\ has been resolved in practice in many American classrooms. That era has become intertwined with lessons on the Holocaust in the history curriculum. This article describes how teachers are finding ways to give their students a more comprehensive look at genocide historically and in current events. Human rights is one of the themes being highlighted in the annual conference of the National Council for the Social Studies next month, and more than a dozen sessions–the most in recent years–will take up teaching about genocide. The council has also crafted sample lessons for teachers on a variety of human-rights issues. The United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines genocide as any act committed with the idea of destroying in whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. Though… [Direct]
(2013). A Means to an End: A Middle Level Teacher's Purposes for Using Historical Simulations. Middle Grades Research Journal, v8 n3 p39-59. Historical simulations are often criticized for being superficial, reinforcing negative stereotypes, and skewing students' view of history. Simulation critics argue if inexperienced teachers implement simulations, they may adversely influence students' psychological development, especially if students take roles as perpetrators or victims. Additionally, critics assert simulations can focus on the horrors rather than the accomplishments of the group under study, and deflect attention from current oppressions. These critiques come from various groups who are concerned with simulations related to issues of oppression, racism, or genocide. Despite these criticisms of classroom simulations, many teachers continue to use and embrace them to simulate different historical events. This article focuses on the espoused purposes of 1 eighth-grade teacher whose practice and views stand in contrast to the critics' assertions about historical simulations. We discovered he reported 4 different… [Direct]
(2009). Imagining a World beyond Genocide: Teaching about Transitional Justice. Social Studies, v100 n4 p169-176 Jul-Aug. The study of the ways in which societies emerging from violent conflict and repressive regimes achieve peace and reconciliation through forms of transitional justice, such as truth commissions, tribunals, systems of reparations, and memorialization of the past, offers an opportunity for secondary social studies teachers to address issues of human rights in a positive and humanizing way. In this article, the author provides a rationale for including the study of transitional justice in the secondary social studies curriculum along with suggestions for teaching it. He argues that the study of transitional justice presents opportunities for students to become morally inclusive in their thinking, engage in global democratic citizenship, and study critically important current events unfolding in their world…. [Direct]
(2012). Educating about Social Issues in the 20th and 21st Centuries: A Critical Annotated Bibliography. Research in Curriculum and Instruction. Volume 1. IAP – Information Age Publishing, Inc. Educating About Social Issues in the 20th and 21st Centuries: A Critical Annotated Bibliography, is comprised of critical essays accompanied by annotated bibliographies on a host of programs, models, strategies and concerns vis-a-vis teaching and learning about social issues facing society. The primary goal of the book is to provide undergraduate and graduate students in the field of education, professors of education, and teachers with a valuable resource as they engage in research and practice in relation to teaching about social issues. In the introductory essays, authors present an overview of their respective topics (e.g., The Hunt/Metcalf Model, Science/Technology/Science, Genocide Education). In doing so, they address, among other concerns, the following: key theories, goals, objectives, and the research base. Many also provide a set of recommendations for adapting and/or strengthening a particular model, program or the study of a specific social issue. In the annotated… [Direct]
(2011). Teaching of the Holocaust as Part of a University's Catholic Identity. Journal of Catholic Higher Education, v30 n2 p199-220 Sum. This article sketches the development of the National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education, Seton Hill University, Greensburg, PA. It does so with broad strokes, which paint a picture of the program of the Center within the context of ecclesial and papal activities and documents. The article describes how the Center entered into dialogue with the academic world of Holocaust studies (especially with the International School for Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, Israel) and how it became engaged in an institute and in triennial conferences that prepare Catholic educators to each the Holocaust by referencing Catholic documents on the Holocaust and on related topics such as antisemitism, racism, genocide, human rights, and interreligious dialogue. The work of the Holocaust Center has contributed to strengthening Seton Hill University's Catholic identity…. [Direct]
(2008). Rhetorical Witnessing: Recognizing Genocide in Guatemala. Community Literacy Journal, v2 n2 p23-44 Spr. The article explores the rhetorical dimensions of witnessing. We concentrate, in particular, on two groups: 1) university students at the University of San Carlos, Quetzaltenango, whose murals are dramatic reminders of the massacres that resulted in the deaths of over 200,000 indigenous people in the 1980s and early 90s and of the corrupt governmental leaders responsible for them, and 2) U.S. accompaniers sponsored by an organization within our own community, the Copper Country Guatemala Accompaniment Project (CCGAP)…. [Direct]
(2010). Surviving the Holocaust: A Meta-Analysis of the Long-Term Sequelae of a Genocide. Psychological Bulletin, v136 n5 p677-698 Sep. The current set of meta-analyses elucidates the long-term psychiatric, psychosocial, and physical consequences of the Holocaust for survivors. In 71 samples with 12,746 participants Holocaust survivors were compared with their counterparts (with no Holocaust background) on physical health, psychological well-being, posttraumatic stress symptoms, psychopathological symptomatology, cognitive functioning, and stress-related physiology. Holocaust survivors were less well adjusted, as apparent from studies on nonselected samples (trimmed combined effect size d = 0.22, 95% CI [0.13, 0.31], N = 9,803) and from studies on selected samples (d = 0.45, 95% CI [0.32, 0.59], N = 2,943). In particular, they showed substantially more posttraumatic stress symptoms (nonselect studies: d = 0.72, 95% CI [0.46, 0.98], N = 1,763). They did not lag, however, much behind their comparisons in several other domains of functioning (i.e., physical health, stress-related physical measures, and cognitive… [Direct]
(2010). The Problem with Using Historical Parallels as a Method in Holocaust and Genocide Teaching. Intercultural Education, v21 suppl S1 pS33-S40. Teaching the Holocaust in multicultural classrooms and in places which have experienced mass violence raises the question of whether specific methods of teaching are required. One of the answers is that Holocaust education in these cases should facilitate the creation of parallels and similarities between past events and the experiences of the learners. This concept is contrasted with a historicist approach, which studies and comprehends each event in its own particular context. Such a stance focuses on the subject matter and much less on the identity of the learners. (Contains 10 notes.)… [Direct]