Does addressing prejudice and discrimination through Holocaust education produce better citizens?
Teaching about the Holocaust, which ‘continues to evoke the ultimate in barbarism and inhumanity’, can make a useful contribution to values and citizenship education. Research on the impact of Holocaust education was conducted in a rural town in Scotland, close to Glasgow. Researchers surveyed Year 7 students (aged 11-12 years) at two primary schools in November 2003 and March 2004 before and after the students studied the Holocaust. The same students were then surveyed in December 2004, during their first year in secondary school, along with peers who had not studied the Holocaust in primary school. The surveys asked the students about their values and attitudes and also whether they felt their own understandings had improved. A number of findings were made. Teaching about the Holocaust was linked to sustained long-term improvement in awareness of the Holocaust itself. Students showed relatively little understanding of the term ‘anti-Semitism’, perhaps due to the specific teaching app
