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| You are here: 2000 / Workshops, Panels and Seminars / Workshops on Education / Workshop 1 on Education, "Pedagogy: Theories, Tools and Results" / Report from Workshop 1 on Education: "Pedagogy: theories, tools and results" | |||||||||
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Participants Countries and organizations Conference documentation Conference programme 
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Report from Workshop 1 on Education: "Pedagogy: theories, tools and results" Presentation by Dr. Ido Abram Presentation by Dr. William R. Fernekes Presentation by Dr. Jacqueline Giere Presentation by Dr. Nili Keren Presentation by Mr. Christer Mattsson Presentation by Dr. Geoffrey Short Presentation by Ped. Director Shulamit Imber Report from Workshop 1 on Education: "Pedagogy: theories, tools and results" Report from Workshop 1 on Education Moderator: Mr. Nili Kerens Presenters:Dr . Ido Abram Dr. Geoff Short Ms. Shulamit Imber Dr. Jacqueline Giere Dr. William Fernekes Mr. Christer Mattson The workshop dealt primarily with questions concerning the objectives, the methods and the results of Holocaust education. The workshop presenters mainly illustrated the questions with examples and experiences from their own countries. The participants, both in the panel and in the audience, agreed on many things, such as the over all importance of Holocaust education and the importance of doing research on themes with relevance to implementing Holocaust education. The actual discussion concerned how to interpret the objectives of Holocaust education, such as fostering autonomy, responsibility and a deeper understanding, and how the objectives should be realized in the classroom and also in more informal settings such as the family. The participants dealt with specific problems concerning how to make Holocaust education more efficient, and how to cater for the specific educational needs among pupils from different groups. All agreed that the conference was a very important event. The moderator, Dr. Nili Keren, expressed her admiration for ”the Living History” project and the way it has been done. One admirable element is the book ”Tell ye children” and also the policy that the government didn’t just send the book to the households, but instead presented it and said to the families that the book was available. Dr. Ido Abram stressed the importance of ”life-stories” (conveyed through biographies) as an important tool in the Holocaust education. Through this method one can, among many things foster attitudes such as empathy among the pupils, and also an awareness of ones own standing in the world as a human being. Dr. Abram emphasized that teachers need to use not only ”life stories” from victims and bystanders, but also ”life stories” from perpetrators in teaching the subject. Through this kind of education, students will become aware of the fact that a person can become a victim, a perpetrator and a bystander (and also a rescuer) in the course of one lifetime. There are no clear cut edges. Abram also stressed the importance of the multicultural nature of many countries such as Netherlands. The educator has to take into account that a classroom can include pupils from many ethnic groups, groups that may have their origin in Non-European countries. This fact creates a need to adjust Holocaust education to the experiences of these pupils. Dr. Geoff Short underlined that Holocaust education can help us understand general phenomena such as racism, stereotypes and xenophobia. Racism can take many forms, and racial attitudes based on colour and ethnicity are just two examples among many. One important objective for the teacher is to convey a deeper understanding of the historical roots of the Holocaust such as the role of the Christian church and wide spread anti-semitism in European history. Dr. Short concentrated his attention upon the fact that there is very little research done in United Kingdom concerning Holocaust education. The time available for teachers of subjects such as history are also very limited (also limited are relevant textbooks), and teachers who have the ambition to realize the objectives of Holocaust education find that the discrepancy between objectives and methods is enormous. Complicated questions that address topics with ethical dimensions need ”space”, as well as difficult explanatory questions which have the goal of creating a deeper understanding among students. Ms. Shulamit Imber said that the starting point for Holocaust education is to point out that the genocide is a human story in the midst of Western civilization. Ms. Imber shared Dr Abram´s view that one must personalize the victims, the bystanders and the perpetrators through concrete ”life stories”. The teacher has to convey that the people involved were people of flesh and blood with problems in daily life and were confronted with extreme forms of moral dilemmas. Dr. Jacqueline Giere emphasized that the educator has to start from the classroom and the pupils. One has to bring Holocaust to them, not bring the pupils to the Holocaust, so to say. Dr Giere said that Holocaust has to be studied from many group perspectives, with an interdisciplinary approach and with several tools (such as text books, ”life stories” and pictures). An important objective is to foster trust and confidence in the classroom. The classroom should be seen as a non-violent place where the pupils and the teacher can penetrate difficult ethical questions and discuss them. Dr. Giere also expressed her about the multiculturality of contemporary German society (as well as many other European countries) and how this creates special challenges for the educator. How shall we make the Holocaust relevant and an urgent matter for an immigrant with non-European origin? Dr. Giere said one can’t generalize too much from the Holocaust to other tragic events in human history. One has to take into account the specificity of Holocaust. For example, it is not right to call Turkish immigrants the ”new Jews” of Germany. On the other hand, Dr. Giere said that there are of course important moral lessons that can be learned from specific events, and that moral lessons that are relevant to problems of present day society. Dr. William Fernekes tried to place Holocaust education in the wide context of Human Rights Education and globalization. An important objective for Holocaust education is to foster citizens with a global awareness and a strong identification with human rights such as the principle of human dignity. Dr. Fernekes also stressed the importance of several tools in Holocaust education such as public discussion, essay writing, reader-response journals etc. Mr. Christer Mattson emphasized the importance of a narrative perspective in Holocaust education where questions such as individual responsibily are raised. Mr. Mattson stressed that there is a an urgent need to discuss the general didactic question ”Why shall I teach this?” in the field of Holocaust education. Most researchers seem to be only concerned with the question ”How shall I teach it?” There is also a gap between research on Holocaust and on Holocaust education, according to Mattson. Much more energy needs to be invested in the latter field. The audience didn’t really challenge the overall views presented by the panel participants. The questions were more concerned with clarification, elaboration and supplementary themes. One participant from an NGO in Argentina was skeptical that Holocaust education in itself could achieve all the mentioned objectives. People in the panel emphasized that it is important to see Holocaust education as one theme of several subjects in school needed to fulfill some of its more important objectives. Other participants in the audience (and in the panel)also emphasized the importance to reflect upon the so-called closed areas in many countries, such as the history of slavery and the situation of indigenous people. One professor from Turkey expressed her concern as a mother for the violence of cartoons and video games, and the negative role this may have upon children. One participant in the panel said that these kind of phenomena of course may have a negative role, but that one should hesitate to use so-called simple explanations in explaining the violence in modern societies. People in the audience also emphasized the importance of designing Holocaust education for pupils with various needs and cultural backgrounds In summary, participants in the panel shared in common many views, such as the importance of an historically embedded and personalized presentation of the Holocaust (through ”life stories”). Holocaust education need to be contextualized in order to fulfill the needs of students with various backgrounds. The participants also seemed to agree that the serious questions that are raised within the field of Holocaust education need more resources, both in terms of research and in terms of ”space” in the school curriculum. Rapporteur: Hans Ingvar Roth, Centre for Multiethnic Research, Uppsala University >> Back to top |
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Introduction Opening Session: Messages and speeches Plenary Sessions: Messages and speeches Workshops, Panels and Seminars
Other Activities |
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| For information about this production and the Stockholm International Forum Conference Series please go to www.humanrights.gov.se or contact Information Rosenbad, SE-103 33 Stockholm, Sweden | |||||||||