The March of Remembrance and Hope: Teaching and Learning about Diversity and Social Justice through the Holocaust

Abstract

Background

Experiential learning has been posited as an approach to influencing preservice teachers’ understanding of diversity and social justice. The research reported here examined the impact of a field-based experience in Poland focused on the Holocaust as it pertained to the beliefs and actions of 12 future education professionals. This program, the March of Remembrance and Hope (MRH), took place in Poland in May 2003; the pretrip preparation occurred in January-May 2003 at a large southeastern university. Five of the participants were preservice teachers, and 7 were graduate students in either counseling psychology or school psychology. The MRH is an international interfaith trip to Holocaust sites in Poland, sponsored by the March of the Living, Israel. The MRH educates participants, primarily Gentiles, about the Holocaust and the dangers of intolerance and racism.

Purpose of Study

The authors are teacher educators committed to multicultural teacher education and teaching about social justice. Thus, we generated the following questions to guide this research: (1) How did the experience of the MRH influence participants’ knowledge of, attitudes about, and actions regarding diversity? (2) How, if at all, did participants connect the MRH experience to issues of social justice?

Research Design

Three case studies, exemplars of the impact of this experience, are presented and discussed in relation to the literature on effective multicultural teacher education, experiential education, and Holocaust education.

Conclusions

Results indicated that the MRH had a significant effect on the thinking and actions of students related to diversity and social justice. If the goal of multicultural education is to facilitate changes in future education professionals’ knowledge, beliefs, and actions, then it is important to take note of the aspects of the MRH experience that so affected Silas, Rachel, and Penny, the students described in the case studies. The literature on teacher education for diversity indicates that traditional approaches to multicultural education have minimal long-term impact. By contrast, the effects of the MRH took time to process and, as of this writing, appear not to have faded over time. And, although the academic preparation was critical to their understanding of the Holocaust, the authentic experience of the MRH had the greatest impact on these students’ thinking about diversity and their willingness to take action against social injustice.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Banks

J. A.

(2001). Citizenship education and diversity: Implications for teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 52, 5—16.

Ben-Bassat

(2000). Holocaust awareness and education in the United States. Religious Education, 95, 402—423.

Brabham

E. G.

(1997). Holocaust education: Legislation, practices, and literature. Social Studies, 88(3), 139—142.

Brown

, and Davies

(1998). The Holocaust and education for citizenship: The teaching of history, religion and human rights. Educational Review, 50, 75—83.

Browning

C. R.

(1992). Ordinary men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. New York: HarperCollins.

Burtonwood

(2002). Holocaust Memorial Day in schools: Context, process and content. A review of research into Holocaust education. Educational Research, 44, 69—82.

Carrington

, and Short

(1997). Holocaust education, anti-racism and citizenship. Educational Review, 49, 271—282.

Cochran-Smith

(2003). Standing at the crossroads: Multicultural teacher education at the beginning of the 21st century. Multicultural Perspectives, 5(3), 3—11.

Cochran-Smith

(2004). Defining the outcomes of teacher education: What's social justice got to do with it? Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 32, 193—212.

10.

Cowan

, and Maitles

(2002). Developing positive values: A case study of Holocaust Memorial Day in the primary schools of one local authority in Scotland. Educational Review, 54, 219—229.

11.

Fearance

R. A.

, and Bell

(2004). A cross-cultural immersion in the U.S.: Changing preservice teacher attitudes toward Latino ESOL students. Equity and Excellence in Education, 37, 343—350.

12.

Gallant

M. J.

, and Hartman

(2001). Holocaust education for the new millennium: Assessing our progress. Journal of Holocaust Education, 10(2), 1—28.

13.

Gollnick

D. M.

, and Chinn

P. C.

(2001). Multicultural education in a pluralistic society (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

14.

Hattie

, Marsh

H. W.

, Neill

J. T.

, and Richards

G. E.

(1997). Adventure education and Outward Bound: Out-of-class experiences that make a lasting difference. Review of Educational Research, 61, 43—87.

15.

Hilberg

(2003). The destruction of the European Jews (Rev. ed.). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

16.

Hill

C. E.

, Thompson

B. J.

, and Williams

E. N.

(1997). A guide to conducting consensual qualitative research. The Counseling Psychologist, 24, 517—572.

17.

Huberman

A. M.

, and Miles

M. B.

(1998). Data management and analysis methods. In Denzin

N.K.

, and Lincoln

Y.S.

(Eds.), Collecting and interpreting qualitative materials (pp. 179—210). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

18.

Hutchings

(Producer). (2004). Remembrance: A journey of hope [Film]. Lexington: Kentucky Educational Television. (Available from Kentucky Educational Television, 600 Cooper Drive, Lexington, KY 40502)

19.

Janesick

V. J.

(1998). The dance of qualitative research design: Metaphor, methodolatry, and meaning. In Denzin

N.K.

, and Lincoln

Y.S.

(Eds.), Strategies of qualitative inquiry (pp. 35—55). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

20.

Mahan

J. M.

, and Rains

F. V.

(1990). Benefits of cultural immersion experiences. Clearing House, 63, 402—404.

21.

Mahan

J. M.

, and Stachowski

L. L.

(1990). New horizons: Student teaching abroad to enrich understanding of diversity. Action in Teacher Education, 12(3), 13—21.

22.

McAllister

, and Irvine

J. J.

(2000). Cultural competency and multicultural teacher education. Review of Educational Research, 70, 3—25.

23.

Meltzer

(1991). Never to forget: The Jews of the Holocaust (Rev. ed.). New York: HarperCollins.

24.

Merryfield

M. M.

(1995). Institutionalizing cross-cultural experiences and international expertise in teacher education: The development and potential of a global education PDS network. Journal of Teacher Education, 46, 19—27.

25.

Miles

M. B.

, and Huberman

A. M.

(1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

26.

National Conference for Community and Justice. (2002). Uniting to complete America's unfinished business. New York: Author

27.

Nel

(1992). Pre-service teacher resistance to diversity: Need to reconsider instructional methodologies. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 19, 23—27.

28.

Nieto

(2003). Affirming diversity: The sociopolitical context of multicultural education (4th ed.). New York: Longman.

29.

Novak

(2000). Defining social justice. First Things, 108, 11—13.

30.

Power

(2002). “A problem from Hell”: America and the age of genocide. New York: Basic Books.

31.

Power

(2004, November). Address delivered at the Annual Convention of the National Council for the Social Studies, Baltimore, MD.

32.

Reed

C. A.

, and Lass

(1995). Racism today: Echoes of the Holocaust. Canadian Social Studies, 29, 140—142.

33.

Richardson

(1996). The role of attitudes and beliefs in learning to teach. In Sikula

, Buttery

T.J.

, and Guyton

(Eds.), Handbook of research on teacher education (2nd ed., pp. 102—119). New York: Macmillan.

34.

Sapon-Shevin

, and Zollers

(1999). Multicultural and disability agendas: Preparing teachers for diversity. International Journal of Leadership in Education: Theory and Practice, 2, 165—190.

35.

Short

, Supple

, and Klinger

(1998). The Holocaust in the school curriculum: A European perspective. Strasbourg, France: Council of Europe.

36.

Sirotnik

K. A.

(1990). Society, schooling, teaching, and preparing to teach. In Goodlad

J.I.

, Soder

, and Sirotnik

K.A.

(Eds.), The moral dimensions of teaching (pp. 296—327). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

37.

Sleeper

, Strom

M. S.

, and Zabierek

H. C.

(1990). Facing history and ourselves. Educational Leadership, 48(3), 84—86.

38.

Smith

G. P.

(1998). Common sense about uncommon knowledge: The knowledge bases for diversity. Washington, DC: American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.

39.

Spalding

, Garcia

, and Savage

(2003) The March of Remembrance and Hope: The effects of a Holocaust education experience on preservice teachers’ thinking about diversity. Multicultural Education, 11, 35—40.

40.

Stachowski

, and Mahan

(1998). Cross-cultural field placements: Student teachers learning from school and communities. Theory Into Practice, 37, 155—162.

41.

Stake

R. E.

(1998). Case studies. In Denzin

N.K.

, and Lincoln

Y.S.

(Eds.), Strategies of qualitative inquiry (pp. 86—109). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

42.

Stone

(2004). The historiography of genocide: Beyond ‘uniqueness’ and ethnic competition. Rethinking History, 8, 127—142.

43.

Wegner

(1998). What lessons are there from the Holocaust for my generation today? Perspectives on civic virtue from middle school youth. Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, 13, 167—183.

44.

Wideen

, Mayer-Smith

, and Moon

(1998). A critical analysis of the research on learning to teach: Making the case for an ecological perspective on inquiry. Review of Educational Research, 68, 130—178.

45.

Wiesel

(1982). Night. New York: Bantam Books.

46.

Wiest

L. R.

(1998). Using immersion experiences to shake up preservice teachers’ views about cultural differences. Journal of Teacher Education, 49, 358—365.

47.

Willison

(1989). Cultural immersion of student teachers on an American Indian reservation. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.

48.

Yin

R. K.

(1989). Case study research: Design and methods. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

49.

Zeichner

, Grant

, Gay

, Gillette

, Valli

, and Villegas

(1998) A research informed vision of good practice in multicultural teacher education: Design principles. Theory Into Practice, 37, 163—171.

50.

Ziechner

, and Hoeft

(1996). Teacher socialization for cultural diversity. In Sikula

, Buttery

T.J.

, and Guyton

(Eds.), Handbook of research on teacher education (2nd ed., pp. 525—547). New York: Macmillan.