Grasping the Unimaginable: Recent Holocaust Novels for Children by Morris Gleitzman and John Boyne

This discussion explores the role that storytelling and stories might have in leading children towards an awareness of uncertainty and ambiguity in relation to Holocaust representation. It focuses on Morris Gleitzman’s Once (2006), its sequel Then (2008), and John Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2006) to consider the narrative techniques used to draw young readers into an understanding of the Holocaust. In particular, the discussion examines the role of silence within these narratives to suggest that a meaningful dialogue with silence is a crucial aspect in communicating the fractured nature of Holocaust history. Literature aimed at a young audience engages explicitly with the oft-cited injunction not to forget the Holocaust by setting out to inform a new generation of readers about the horrors of the Nazi genocide. In my analysis of these texts, however, I want to consider whether we should assume that such works do necessarily perform a progressive educative role. The article argues that the blunt didacticism of Boyne’s text might close down possibilities for the child reader’s imaginative engagement with the ungraspable nature of the Holocaust. In contrast, Gleitzman’s novels confront the child reader with a complex set of ideas about the relationship between narrative and subjectivity.     

Far away and nearby: Holocaust remembrance and human rights education in Switzerland

The article considers how young people in Swiss schools are taught about the history and background of the Holocaust within the wider perspective of human rights education, as an important basis for education concerning democratic citizenship. Given the country’s specific history, for decades the Holocaust was not a matter of great interest in Swiss schools, or a topic that pupils often learned about as a part of their own history. Recently, however, sensitivity about historical incidents and the processes of the Third Reich has increased. Holocaust education has also become more important in the context of Swiss state institutional policy and non-governmental initiatives and has also become an issue in schools. This article includes an overview of relevant Swiss history and the current political situation, and a review of Swiss educational policies and especially of activities related to Holocaust remembrance and human rights education.     

Holocaust education in Polish public schools: Between remembrance and civic education

This article analyzes the historical and political context of Holocaust education, and its implementation in Polish schools. Perceptions of the Holocaust continue to change, influenced by Poland’s social and political situation. The Polish historical context is quite specific; it includes the long history of Poles and Jews as neighbours, with local resentments and animosities, and the Polish sense of being special victims of World War II and observers of the Nazis’ “final solution to the Jewish question”. These different types of social awareness have neutralized the remembrance of the Holocaust and its presence in school education. Similarly, the perception of the Holocaust in Polish schools has changed. Initially seen as just one element in the Nazis’ crimes against everyone in Poland, it is now understood as a singular phenomenon, the unparalleled mass extermination of the Jewish nation. From this perspective, I analyze Holocaust education, and its status in the curriculum and in pedagogical practice. I also report on my own research on the practice and meanings of Holocaust education in Polish public schools. Holocaust education should not be limited to the pedagogical transfer of remembrance but should also be associated with transforming social awareness and modern civic education.     

Mind the gap: Holocaust education in Germany,between pedagogical intentions and classroom interactions

The injunction to learn from history is a key feature of German debates over the politics of memory and history, which, since the end of World War II, have been seen primarily pedagogical. Thus, state schools were asked to serve as society’s central location for memory and learning. Research on history education has rarely addressed questions about how instruction on the history of National Socialism (NS) plays out in practice, about how ambitious educational goals are implemented at the level of actual instruction, or about the challenges that teachers and students face when they are asked to address such a morally fraught topic. This paper presents findings from a qualitative study that explored these issues using analyses of concrete classroom experience. The paper is based on four carefully selected case studies. The first looks at how a contemporary account of the issue and its moral implications are handled in the classroom. The second examines the consequences for classroom discussion of a discrepancy between teacher expectations and student interpretations of an excerpt from Hitler’s Mein Kampf. The third also addresses a discrepancy, focusing on the institutionalized generation gap in school. Finally, the fourth case shows how instructional communication benefits when participants assume a reciprocal, though not always articulated, consensus opinion on NS. The interpretation of the cases illustrates how both the organizational framework of schools and the specific conditions of classroom interaction shape the treatment of NS. Classroom interactions are strongly influenced by the quirky, often unexpected, ways that students appropriate knowledge—ways that often conflict with the intended content of the lesson and with public expectations for the treatment of Germany’s past. The analysis reveals a tension between the under-moralization and the over-moralization of teaching the Holocaust, and a tension between the need to represent the crimes of NS adequately, and to fulfill the goals of moral education.     

Policy and practice of Holocaust education in Scotland

In contrast to the situation in England and Wales, Holocaust education in Scotland is not mandatory and is not delivered to every school student. Still, it is offered frequently. In this article we show how Scotland’s changing curriculum, the introduction of Holocaust Memorial Day, and the Lessons from Auschwitz Project have contributed to the growth of Holocaust education in Scotland over the last decade. We discuss the significance of each of these three factors, the impact of Holocaust education, and the inter-related nature of their practice with relevant references to the English equivalent. We further examine the role of Holocaust education at both the primary and secondary level, consider the challenges for Holocaust education in Scotland, and conclude that although large numbers of students in Scotland are currently engaging with Holocaust education, these three factors continue to play a vital role in its success.     

社会经济学的三大流派:一个简要述评

社会经济学从萌芽发展繁荣,期间形成了众多流派,影响较大的主要有三大流派:天主教社会经济学、人本主义社会经济学、奥地利派社会经济学。天主教社会经济学强调受到天主教教义的指导,人本主义社会经济学则是以人为中心来开始研究,奥地利派社会经济学强调经济社会是一个整体。在发展过程中,奥地利派社会经济学到了21世纪30年代发展演变成了"奥地利经济学派";人本主义社会经济学则另立山头,出现了发展专门的人本主义经济学的趋势;天主教社会经济学则不断淡化宗教色彩,扩大开放,借鉴吸收其他学科的最新理论成果,大有融合、包容其他社会经济学的倾向。现阶段,当代社会经济学还在快速发展中,其发展走向还有待观察。     

“Into Eternity’s Certain Breadth”: Ambivalent Escapes in Markus Zusak’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">The Book Thief</Emphasis>

This article examines the consolatory possibilities presented by Markus Zusak’s recent crossover novel The Book Thief, investigating the degree to which the novel delivers the simultaneous consolation and confrontation identified with children’s and young adults’ Holocaust texts by such critics as Adrienne Kertzer and Lawrence Baron. Contending that the supernatural nature of the novel’s redemptive imagery ultimately undermines its apparently consolatory purpose, the article concludes with an analysis of the extent to which such a reading is complicated by the novel’s status as crossover text, and the triangular gaze that might subsequently be attributed to its adult readers.     

Introduction to the Open File

Sixty-five years after the liberation of Auschwitz, Holocaust education is at a critical juncture. Societies including Germany and Israel have moved through several discrete stages both in their relationships to the Holocaust, and in education about it. Those shifts will surely continue as the generation of survivors is progressively lost to the passage of time, taking with them our most powerful links to history, memory, and understanding. This special issue explores Holocaust education research, and locates it within our evolving understanding of the Holocaust itself, particularly in light of what is being learned within Central and Eastern Europe, where so many of the atrocities were committed. This introduction considers the potential of Holocaust education as well as its limitations, and the risks of its failure. It also considers the contexts in which Holocaust education takes place, and the meanings that are at work in those contexts. While many goals and visions animate Holocaust education, here we explore the notion of a culture of peace and remembrance. We close with a review of the contributions to this issue.     

Education policy as normative discourse and negotiated meanings: Engaging the Holocaust in Estonia

This article uses a socio-cultural approach to analyze the formation and implementation of Estonia’s Holocaust Day Policy, a day of both commemoration for victims of the Holocaust and other crimes against humanity, and education about the Holocaust. It investigates both the multi-level development of the policy in light of external pressure (from foreign advocates and transnational groups including NATO and the Council of Europe) and the ways in which policy as normative discourse was constructed and its meanings negotiated between international sources, the national government, and educators. It draws attention to the multifaceted nature of discourse in a post-authoritarian context where power disparities further complicate an already complex trans-national policy environment.     

A study on the amalgamation of chinese higher educational institutions

After nearly 15 years of painstaking efforts, the reform targets of higher education system have been met, and a decentralized, two-tiered administrative system has been installed. As reform proceeded, the 1990s witnessed revolutionary changes in China ’s higher education system, particularly through radical mergers. The reform process and its background are detailed here, with a case study focusing on Zhejiang University. However, the most hotly debated reform has been the amalgamation of universities. Two kinds of merger can be identified and the whole process can be traced in detail. The need to optimize China ’s system of higher education has a background dating back about 50 years, when the first reordering of higher education took place. The reordering and its results are described, and the causes and after effects of this reform are detailed.     

Holocaust education in Jewish schools in Israel: Goals, dilemmas, challenges

Research has shown the Holocaust to be the primary component of Jewish identity (Farago in Yahadut Zmanenu 5:259–285, 1989; Gross in Influence of the trip to Poland within the framework of the Ministry of Education on the working through of the Holocaust. Unpublished M.A. thesis, Ben-Gurion University, Beer Sheva, 2000; Herman in Jewish identity: A socio-psychological perspective, Sage, Beverly Hills, 1977; Levy et al. in Beliefs, observations and social interaction among Israeli Jews. Louis Guttman Israel Institute of Applied Social Research (Hebrew), Jerusalem, 1993; Ofer in Jews in Israel: Contemporary social and cultural patterns. Brandeis University Press, Hanover and London, pp. 394–417, 2004a) and to contribute significantly to Jewish Israelis’ sense of belonging to the Jewish people. Though the Holocaust is a central event in Jewish history, Holocaust education is mandatory in the state education system in Israel, and some research has investigated the impact of this education, the field has not been conceptualized systematically (Blatman in Bishvilei haZikaron 7:15–16, 1995; Feldman in Bishvilei haZikaron 7:8–11, 1995; Ofer in Jewish Educ 10:87–108, 2004b; Schatzker in Int J Polit Educ 5(1): 75–82, 1982). This article attempts to organize the existing knowledge on the subject through a meta-analysis of the foundations and basic premises of Holocaust education in Israel, using the most important literature in the area. It first suggests a conceptual framework, organizing by period the changing attitudes toward the Holocaust in general and Holocaust education in particular. It then describes Holocaust education over the years, and finally analyzes the goals of Holocaust education, along with its major dilemmas and challenges.     

Heuristic Diagrams as a Tool to Teach History of Science

The graphic organizer called here heuristic diagram as an improvement of Gowin’s Vee heuristic is proposed as a tool to teach history of science. Heuristic diagrams have the purpose of helping students (or teachers, or researchers) to understand their own research considering that asks and problem-solving are central to scientific activity. The left side originally related in Gowin’s Vee with philosophies, theories, models, laws or regularities now agrees with Toulmin’s concepts (language, models as representation techniques and application procedures). Mexican science teachers without experience in science education research used the heuristic diagram to learn about the history of chemistry considering also in the left side two different historical times: past and present. Through a semantic differential scale teachers’ attitude to the heuristic diagram was evaluated and its usefulness was demonstrated.     

Teaching About National Socialism and the Holocaust: Narrative Approaches to Holocaust Education

The article outlines a deficit in Holocaust education: The motives of the perpetrators and bystanders are often not dealt with. In order to explore these motives, interviews with former Nazis were conducted and evaluated in the Geschichte und Erinnerung (History and Memory) research project; two of the findings are presented here. Subsequently the question of how these findings can be applied in school teaching about National Socialism and the Holocaust is discussed. The author recommends teachers not to expose students to whole narrations of former Nazis, but to use brief excerpts from those narrations in order to develop an analysis of the Nazis’ motives. Ultimately, teaching about the topic of National Socialism and the Holocaust should be integrated with students’ own narrations, with their knowledge of the topic based on family stories, family secrets, and other sources.     

Going to school with Madame Curie and Mr. Einstein: gender roles in children’s science biographies

One of the first places children encounter science and scientists is children’s literature. Children’s books about science and scientists have, however, received limited scholarly attention. By exploring the history of children’s biographies of Marie Curie and Albert Einstein, the two most written about scientist in children’s literature, this paper taps this unutilized resource to cultivate a unique perspective on the history of gender and authority in science and science education. Through analysis of explicit discussions of womanhood and science and implicit gendering of Curie and Einstein’s school experiences within these books, this study demonstrates that while much has changed in how these stories are framed the gender of the scientist is still central to how they are represented in children’s literature.     

(Re)location of Home in Louise Erdrich’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">The Game of Silence</Emphasis>

Louise Erdrich is one of the most influential writers of the Native American Renaissance. Her contributions to the representation of Native American history have been great, and her masterpieces of children’s literature have won her a prominent reputation. This article explores the (re)location of the concept of home in Erdrich’s The Game of Silence and analyzes the novel’s historical context with reference to various discourses on space/place, including those by Native Americans. Erdrich’s narration reconstructs a space for Native American culture, religion and tradition, and for the continued survival of Native American people. She represents the silent history of her ancestors’ displacement to the West, as white settlers encroached upon their beloved homeland. As Erdrich’s work so poignantly illustrates, for Native American people, home is nowhere and anywhere.     

Navigating Worlds of “Trouble and Woe and Worse” in Children’s Literature: An Exploration into the Double Text of Tony Kushner and Maurice Sendak’s Brundibar

In this article, the author explores the richly layered double text of Kushner and Sendak’s picturebook, Brundibar (2003)—the historical context of Brundibár as a Holocaust-era children’s operetta by Hans Krása and Adolf Hoffmeister, and the present day manifestation of Brundibar as a children’s picturebook. In order to contextualize the discussion of Kushner and Sendak’s text, Brundibar’s historical origins in Nazi-annexed Czechoslovakia and its transition to the stage in the Nazi “model” concentration camp, Terezín, is presented. An extensive semiotic analysis of Kushner and Sendak’s illustrations and text is also provided within the framework of what Kushner (The art of Maurice Sendak: 1980 to the present, 2003) terms “a world of trouble and woe and worse” (p. 210). Furthermore, the author discusses the development of Sendak’s Hitlerian Brundibar and the struggles that both Kushner and Sendak faced as they considered how to portray the story’s antagonist, given their somewhat differing conceptions of which difficult themes and topics children should be exposed to during childhood. To round out this discussion, the author explores pedagogical implications for teachers as they read difficult texts, particularly Holocaust texts, with children.     

A review of Catherine Milne��s book, The Invention of Science

Catherine Milne’s book, The Invention of Science, recounts the history of science (mainly Eurocentric) from cross-cultural, historical and philosophical worldviews. Scientists, science educators, and teachers would find this an interesting book, not only for themselves but also for those with whom they interact. Most accounts are of the great men in science with some to women in science, including reference to the exclusion of women from science. Milne provides thought-provoking activities to use in the classroom, like asking students to write the processes that occur when sugar dissolves in hot tea, with students including the three components of causal explanation. She also encourages teachers to use narratives to help students learn the context of discovery in science. In a comparison of analogical, deductive, inductive and abductive reasoning, she encourages teachers to pay attention to dialogical arguments. Book review author predicts that Milne’s book will fit well with the nation’s next generation science standards, still in development form. Milne succeeded in her goal “to combine aspects of the philosophy and history; not just to focus on specific scientific ideas but to provide a hint of the complex relationship between place and history, space and time, in the development of Eurocentric science.”     

OECD S EXAMINATION OF AUSTRIAN HIGHER EDUCATION

For the third time, Austria has been the subject of an OECD survey covering education and science. After the general analysis of the education system in 1966 and the study on research policy in 1970 OECD's experts have turned to the question of evolution in Austrian secondary schools.

We give below a report prepared by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research on OECD ‘s examination of national educational policies concerning Austrian higher education.     

Kuhn and conceptual change: on the analogy between conceptual changes in science and children

This article argues that the analogy between conceptual changes in the history of science and conceptual changes in the development of young children is problematic. We show that the notions of ‘conceptual change’ in Kuhn and Piaget’s projects, the two thinkers whose work is most commonly drawn upon to support this analogy, are not compatible in the sense usually claimed. We contend that Kuhn’s work pertains not so much to the psychology of individual scientists, but to the way philosophers and historians should describe developments in communities of scientists. Furthermore, we argue that the analogy is based on a misunderstanding of the nature of science and the relation between science and common sense. The distinctiveness of the two notions of conceptual change has implications for science education research, since it raises serious questions about the relevance of Kuhn’s remarks for the study of pedagogical issues.     

Rethinking historical and cultural source of spontaneous mental models of water cycle: in the perspective of South Korea

This review explores Ben-Zvi Assaraf, Eshach, Orion, and Alamour’s paper titled “Cultural Differences and Students’ Spontaneous Models of the Water Cycle: A Case Study of Jewish and Bedouin Children in Israel” by examining how the authors use the concept of spontaneous mental models to explain cultural knowledge source of Bedouin children’s mental model of water compared to Jewish children’s mental model of water in nature. My response to Ben-Zvi Assaraf et al.’s work expands upon their explanations of the Bedouin children’s cultural knowledge source. Bedouin children’s mental model is based on their culture, religion, place of living and everyday life practices related to water. I suggest a different knowledge source for spontaneous mental model of water in nature based on unique history and traditions of South Korea where people think of water in nature in different ways. This forum also addresses how western science dominates South Korean science curriculum and ways of assessing students’ conceptual understanding of scientific concepts. Additionally I argue that western science curriculum models could diminish Korean students’ understanding of natural world which are based on Korean cultural ways of thinking about the natural world. Finally, I also suggest two different ways of considering this unique knowledge source for a more culturally relevant teaching Earth system education.