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What Do Students Know and Understand About the Holocaust? Evidence from English Secondary Schools

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What Do Students Know and Understand About the Holocaust? Evidence from English Secondary Schools CENTRE FOR HOLOCAUST EDUCATION What do students know and understand about the Holocaust? Evidence from English secondary schools Stuart Foster, Alice Pettigrew, Andy Pearce, Rebecca Hale Adrian Burgess, Paul Salmons, Ruth-Anne Lenga Centre for Holocaust Education What do students know and understand about the Holocaust? Evidence from English secondary schools Cover image: Photograph by Olivia Hemingway, 2014 What do students know and understand about the Holocaust? Evidence from English secondary schools Stuart Foster Alice Pettigrew Andy Pearce Rebecca Hale Adrian Burgess Paul Salmons Ruth-Anne Lenga ISBN: 978-0-9933711-0-3 Copyright © Stuart Foster [email protected] Published in Great Britain in 2016 Second Edition UCL Institute of Education 20 Bedford Way London WC1H 0AL United Kingdom British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A CIP record is available from the British Library All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism or review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permissions of the publisher. iii Contents About the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education iv Acknowledgements and authorship iv Glossary v Foreword by Sir Peter Bazalgette vi Foreword by Professor Yehuda Bauer viii Executive summary 1 Part I Introductions 5 1. Introduction 7 2. Methodology 23 Part II Conceptions and encounters 35 3. Collective conceptions of the Holocaust 37 4. Encountering representations of the Holocaust in classrooms and beyond 71 Part III Historical knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust 99 Preface 101 5. Who were the victims? 105 6. Who were the perpetrators and who was responsible? 139 7. When and where did the Holocaust take place? 171 Part IV Reflections and the way ahead 201 8. Considerations and recommendations 203 Appendices 223 1. The survey 225 2. Attitudinal scales used in the survey 247 3. Coding frameworks for free-text questions 249 4. Schools that participated in the survey 252 5. Schools that participated in the focus groups 255 6. Multiple regression analyses 256 References 258 www.ioe.ac.uk/holocaust iv About the UCL Centre Acknowledgements and authorship for Holocaust Education This research report has been written under the auspices The principal authors of the report are Professor Stuart of the University College London (UCL) Centre for Foster, Dr Alice Pettigrew, Dr Andy Pearce and Dr Holocaust Education. The Centre is part of the UCL Rebecca Hale, with significant additional contributions Institute of Education – currently the world’s leading made by Adrian Burgess, Paul Salmons and Ruth- university for education – and is comprised of a team Anne Lenga. of researchers and educators from a variety of different The research upon which the report draws was disciplinary fields. The Centre works in partnership with conducted primarily by Adrian Burgess, Rebecca Hale, the Pears Foundation who, together with the Department Stuart Foster, Andy Pearce, Ruth-Anne Lenga and for Education, have co-funded its operation since it was Alice Pettigrew, supported by Dr Michael Gray, Darius first established in 2008. Jackson, Ashleigh Thomson, Chitro Ghose, Christopher A centrally important principle of all activity based at Edwards, Catrina Kirkland, Rachel Ryan and Mary the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education is that, wherever Sawtell. The authors are also very grateful to Ros Ashby possible, classroom practice should be informed by whose creative thought and exploratory pilot work academic scholarship and relevant empirical research. significantly impacted the direction of this research. In 2009, Centre staff published an extensive national Colleagues from both the Centre for Holocaust study of secondary school teachers’ experience of Education and elsewhere within UCL provided further and attitudes towards teaching about the Holocaust critical insight and commentary. These include Dr Arthur (Pettigrew et al. 2009). This new report builds on that Chapman, Darius Jackson, Emma O’Brien, Professor earlier work by critically examining English school Alice Sullivan and Dr Nicola Wetherall. students’ knowledge and understanding of this history. Particular thanks are due to Trevor Pears CMG, In both cases, research findings have been – and will Amy Braier and Bridget McGing from the Pears continue to be – used to develop an innovative and Foundation for their outstanding support, advice and ground-breaking programme of continuing professional close collegiality. The Centre also benefits immeasurably development (CPD) for teachers and educational from the wise counsel, insights and friendship of Ben resources that are uniquely responsive to clearly identified Helfgott MBE who is a longstanding advocate for the classroom needs. The UCL Centre for Holocaust work we do. Education is the only institution of its kind, both within We would additionally like to thank those individuals the United Kingdom and internationally, where pioneering and organisations who acted as external consultants empirical research is placed at the heart of work to at various stages of this research, including Professor support teachers and their students encountering this Monique Eckmann, Dame Helen Hyde, Michael profoundly important yet complex and challenging Maddison and Dr Geoffrey Short as well as officials from subject in schools. the Department for Education. The Centre offers a wide-ranging educational Professor David Cesarani, Professor Tony Kushner programme appropriate to teachers at all stages of their and Professor Tom Lawson each provided invaluable careers through a carefully constructed ‘pathway of historiographical feedback on specific chapters of this professional development’. This provides opportunities report. As we set about addressing the issues laid out for individuals to progressively deepen their knowledge in this report, we feel keenly the loss of David Cesarani. and improve their practice. It offers a national programme David’s generous support for our Centre always served of Initial Teacher Education in Holocaust education and a to improve our work, and we deeply miss him both as variety of in-depth and subject-specific CPD. In addition, friend and advisor. The scale of the challenge appears the Centre also offers online distance learning facilities, even greater without him. including a fully accredited taught Masters-level module Enormous thanks are also due to Ashleigh Thomson, The Holocaust in the Curriculum. Through its Beacon Chitro Ghose, Louise Palmer, Julia Vale, Shazia Syed, School programme, Centre staff work intensively Robin Friend and Laura Schmah. Their support with up to 20 schools across England each year in order and combined expertise and patience have been to recognise and further develop exemplary indispensable in both managing the logistics involved in whole-school approaches and effective pedagogy. undertaking a research project of this scope and scale All of the courses and classroom materials developed and in drawing together this final report. by the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education are available Finally, we are especially grateful to all of the free of charge to teachers working in England’s state- students who participated in this study by sharing their funded secondary schools. Further information can be understandings and opinions and to all the teachers found at www.ioe.ac.uk/holocaust. and other staff members who made it possible for us to visit their schools. v Glossary A Levels Key Stage 3 The A Level is a school leaving qualification offered The English education system is structured into by educational bodies in England (and in other several ‘key stages’ that mark progressive periods countries) to students completing secondary or of schooling. Key Stage 3 comprises the first three pre-university education. Typically, students aged 16 years of students’ secondary education − Years 7, 8 to 18 intensely focus on a small number of school and 9 − in which students are typically aged between subjects (i.e. 2, 3 or 4) over a two-year period. The 11 and 14. A Level is generally split into two parts. The first part is known as the Advanced Subsidiary Level (or AS Mean Level) and the second part is known as the A2 Level. The everyday numerical average score. So, the In most subjects A Level grades (A–E) are awarded mean of 2 and 3 is 2.5 (Howitt and Cramer 2011). according to the results of rigorous formal exams. Mean scores were calculated for some of the scales in the survey. For example, in the case of the 11 Cronbach’s alpha (α) multiple-choice knowledge-based questions, a total Used to assess internal reliability, giving an indication score was calculated for each student to find out of how consistent each participant is when how many questions they answered correctly. These responding to questions within a scale. To assess scores were then added together and divided by the this, the Cronbach’s alpha is calculated. Values range total number of students, to give a mean score for from 0 to 1, with values below 0.7 indicating that the the whole sample. scale lacks reliability (and so should be refined or removed from the survey). Values above 0.7 indicate Principal Components Analysis (PCA) an acceptable level of reliability and determine the This is a technique that can be used on scales that scale can be kept in the survey (Field 2013). examine things that cannot be measured directly, like attitudes (Field 2013). Scales of this sort will comprise English secondary schools multiple questions to capture different aspects of the In the United Kingdom, the separate countries − phenomenon being examined; PCA can be used to England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland − determine whether individual questions in the scale each have their own education department with a cluster together (which would provide support for the separate structure for organisation and funding. This underlying theoretical constructs being measured in report focuses only on secondary school students that scale) (Coolican 2005: 176). in England.
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