The Holocaust as history and human rights: A cross-national analysis of Holocaust education in social science textbooks, 1970–2008

Abstract

This article examines Holocaust education in secondary school social science textbooks around the world since 1970, using data coded from 465 textbooks from 69 countries. It finds that books and countries more connected to world society and with an accompanying emphasis on human rights, diversity in society and a depiction of international, rather than national, society are more likely to discuss the Holocaust. Additionally, textbooks from Western countries contain more discussion of the Holocaust, although the rate is increasing in Eastern European and other non-Western countries, suggesting eventual convergence. We also find a shift in the nature of discussion, from a historical event to a violation of human rights or crime against humanity. These findings broadly support the arguments of neo-institutional theories that the social and cultural realms of the contemporary world are increasingly globalized and that notions of human rights are a central feature of world society.

Multiculturalism and human rights in civic education: the case of British Columbia, Canada

“…The coding procedures closely follow guidelines in Krippendorf (2004) and draw on his definition of content analysis as 'a research technique for making replicable and valid inferences from texts (or other meaningful matter) to the contexts of their use' (18). Much of the questionnaire was originally developed for a cross-national and longitudinal project that examined over 450 textbooks from more than 65 countries (Bromley 2009;Bromley, Meyer, and Ramirez 2009;Meyer, Bromley, and Ramirez 2010;Bromley and Russell 2010). Questions in the original coding document were adjusted to address issues related specifically to Canada, such as discussions of French-speaking groups.…”

Ανάλυση Περιεχομένου Των Σχολικών Εγχειριδίων Της Γλώσσας Δ΄ Δημοτικού Σχετικά Με Την Ανάδειξη Των Δικαιωμάτων Του Παιδιού Και Την Ευαισθητοποίηση Των Μαθητών Απέναντι Σε Αυτά

“…Ενδεικτικά αναφέρεται ότι έχει διερευνηθεί στη Νότια Κορέα ο βαθμός αντίληψης του ατόμου ως πολίτη του κόσμου, που υπερασπίζεται τα ανθρώπινα δικαιώματα (Moon & Koo, 2011), ο βαθμός προώθησης προκαταλήψεων στα σχολικά βιβλία όλων των βαθμίδων εκπαίδευσης στον Καναδά (McDiarmid & Pratt, 1971) και η εμφάνιση των ανθρώπινων δικαιωμάτων στα σχολικά εγχειρίδια που αφορούν στην εκμάθηση της μητρικής γλώσσας στην Τουρκία σε σύγκριση με τα αντίστοιχα της Γαλλίας (Aslan & Karaman-Kepenekci, 2008). Παράλληλα, έχει διερευνηθεί ο τρόπος παρουσίασης του Ναζιστικού Ολοκαυτώματος σε συσχέτιση με τα ανθρώπινα δικαιώματα στα σχολικά βιβλία Κοινωνικών Επιστημών της Δευτεροβάθμιας εκπαίδευσης σε διεθνές επίπεδο (Bromley & Russell, 2010), καθώς και σε μια επόμενη έρευνα μελετήθηκε ο βαθμός προβολής των ανθρώπινων δικαιωμάτων εν γένει στα εν λόγω βιβλία (Meyer, Bromley & Ramirez, 2010).…”

Struggling to deal with the difficult past: Polish students confront the Holocaust

“…In the USA, Germany and Britain, Holocaust education was introduced only in the 1970s. Around the world, the term 'Holocaust' began to appear in textbooks during the late 1990s, usually from the context of a human rights curriculum (Bromley & Russell, 2010).…”

“…Most research on teaching the violent past has focused on textbooks and school materials (Cole, 2007;Dierkes, 2007;Dietsch, 2012;Foster & Crawford, 2006;Porat, 2004;Bromley & Russell, 2010). This research usually demonstrates that textbooks omit or misrepresent more difficult aspects of a violent past.…”