UCL Institute of Education, 10.30am – 12.00pm, 19 July 2016
Over the past generation, education has emerged as a central conduit for developing societal awareness of the Holocaust and establishing its cultural memory. This international trend has been especially prominent in the United Kingdom, through such means as the National Curriculum, Holocaust Memorial Day, and the recently established UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation. These developments have been supplemented by initiatives like the IWM’s permanent Holocaust Exhibition have sought to create cultural learning spaces, extracurricular site visits for Sixth Formers through the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Lessons from Auschwitz Project, and the emergence of institutions like the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education which are dedicated to research and teacher professional development.
Cumulatively, all of this work has affected change over the past 30 years. Recent research by the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education clearly demonstrates the vast majority of secondary school students across England are familiar with the Holocaust and believe they know at least something about this history. Moreover, most of these young people appeared to strongly believe that the Holocaust was really important to know about. However, the Centre’s research also raises some compelling and troubling questions. It is evident students’ ‘knowledge’ is often somewhat limited, uncertain and/or imprecise. Indeed, the research reports several significant common gaps in student knowledge and understanding as well as widely shared myths and misconceptions, even among those young people who have already been formally taught about the Holocaust in school.
This symposium brings together leading figures to critically reflect on some of the main findings of this student research, and consider their wider ramifications for the presence of the Holocaust in contemporary British society. Panellists will discuss amongst other things the levels of students’ knowledge and understanding, the relationship between Holocaust commemoration and Holocaust education, and the ongoing fascination British culture has with this period of history.
Panellists
The symposium will be introduced with a short presentation from Professor Stuart Foster, Executive Director, Centre for Holocaust Education, chaired by Dr. Ben Barkow, Director of The Wiener Library, and will feature the following panellists:
- Professor Tom Lawson, Northumbria University
- Olivia Marks-Woldman, Chief Executive, Holocaust Memorial Day Trust
- James Bulgin, Content Leader, Holocaust Galleries, Imperial War Museum
- Amy Braier, Director, Pears Foundation
- Alex Maws, Head of Education, Holocaust Educational Trust
