Do Teachers Care About Historical Justice? Teaching About the Holocaust, Genocide, and Colonialism in England

Abstract

When and where do teachers care about historical justice? Using the data collected in oral history interviews with secondary school history teachers in England, who have taught between 1980 and the present; Mann analyses teachers’ motivations when educating about the Holocaust in Key Stage Three history, a school topic imbued with civic objectives. Beyond the Holocaust, some teachers choose to educate about other more recent genocides, primarily the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda and the Srebrenica genocide. This study analyses whether attaining justice for more recent genocides motivates teachers and informs their lesson planning. It considers whether truth-telling forms part of the history teacher’s mission, explores which genocides teachers feel morally obliged to teach, and explores why Holocaust memory enables teachers in England to articulate genocidal violence, but not colonial violence.