How to teach about genocide in fragile contexts? Sensitive topics and our everyday life in times of migration crisis
Abstract
The module introduces issues related to the problem of education and teaching about genocide in the fragile contexts of migration crisis in the 21st century. It defines what genocide education is as “difficult knowledge” and as education in which the key concepts are memory and understanding. Selected areas of genocide education, together with its goals and the approaches to teaching about genocide at different levels of education in selected countries are discussed. An attempt is made to answer the questions on how and why we should teach about genocides in the 21st century in fragile contexts. Education about genocide is an essential element in understanding historical and contemporary processes related to political, economic, and cultural conflicts. The aim: to enable instructors to discuss sensitive, controversial topics in their classroom in a student-centred way.
Objectives
- To make teachers aware of their and school’s role in reacting to “difficult knowledge” in a diverse classroom
- To equip teachers with knowledge about suitable methods and strategies of instruction: how to discuss “difficult knowledge” and how to teach about sensitive topics (genocides) in sensitive times
Target group:
- university students (social studies): bachelor and postgraduate program students
- teachers of lower and upper secondary education working with underage students
Acknowledgments
In the e-module, I refer to and use excerpts from Beata Machul-Telus and my academic articles: Machul-Telus B., Markowska-Manista U., Nijakowski L., Krwawy cień genocydu. Ludobójstwa – pamięć, dyskurs, edukacja (The bloody shadow of genocide. Genocide – memory, discourse, education), Instytut Wydawniczy Książka I Prasa Warszawa 2017; Machul-Telus B., Markowska-Manista U., Nijakowski L., Krwawy cień genocydu. Interdyscyplinarne studia nad ludobójstwem (The bloody shadow of genocide. An interdisciplinary study of genocide), Impuls, Kraków 2011.
Keywords: Teaching about genocide, fragile contexts, migration and genocide as sensitive topics, migration crisis, difficult knowledge