Informed Pedagogy of the Holocaust: A Survey of Teachers Trained by Leading Holocaust Organisations in the United States

Abstract

This chapter presents findings from a 2014 study of teachers who participated in one or more selective programmes to train teachers in Holocaust education and then returned to their classrooms to design and implement Holocaust instruction for students. The teachers were trained by at least one of three national organisations offering such programmes: the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the USC Shoah Foundation, and the Memorial Library. Teachers identified a range of factors that influence how they design and deliver Holocaust pedagogy in their classrooms, and given those factors, the pedagogical choices they make. The key factor that influences these teachers’ choices is their personal objectives and commitment, and their key pedagogical approach is literary or text-based. These findings can be instructional for both the individual teachers interested in such training and the organisations that train them.