Join us on Monday, 26 January, 4pm for the second in a series of online seminars with Dr Becky Hale, who will present the findings from this new study and discuss what they mean for the future of Holocaust education. The session will be chaired by Centre Director, Dr Andy Pearce, with reflections from Professor Tom Lawson, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost at Northumbria University.

In 2016, the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education published the world’s largest study of secondary school students’ knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust. Almost a decade on, schools have faced major challenges, and teachers report that these pressures are shaping how the Holocaust is taught and learnt about in classrooms today.

To understand what has changed, the Centre has conducted a new national study with almost 3,000 students. This latest research forms the Centre’s fourth national study across nearly two decades of pioneering work.

This second webinar, held on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day, will focus on our second research digest: Knowledge and Understandings of the Holocaust: Two decades of research informing classroom practice in Holocaust education.  Becky will present findings which show how students continue to struggle with basic questions about the Holocaust including what happened, to whom, where and when. Whilst the data shows some development in knowledge, numerous misconceptions prevail. In accounting for the findings, the presenters will reflect on recommendations from the Centre’s 2016 study to improve Holocaust education, including actions for teaching practice, policy and research. Unfortunately, over the ten years since, very few of those recommendations have been acted upon. Alongside these longstanding issues, the broader context of how students access information has also changed and this will be considered during the seminar with findings from student focus groups presented. In these discussions, students described their encounters with troubling online content related to the Holocaust.

This webinar is the second in a new series of conversations led by the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education, inviting educators and policymakers to explore why Holocaust education matters today and how it can be strengthened in the years ahead.