The Durban Holocaust Centre Educators and the Origins of their Historical and Pedagogical Knowledge

ABSTRACT

Education at Holocaust museums worldwide often falls to volunteer museum educators. The Durban Holocaust Centre in South Africa is no different. We set out to understand who the educators at the Durban Holocaust Centre were, where their historical and pedagogical knowledge came from, and to examine the connection between the two. The study revealed the diverse nature of the museum educators’ biographies as well as their motivations for guiding. Their knowledge acquisition was generally a blend of formal objectivist and informal constructivist methods. It emerged that the self-learning model was successful as the educators were highly professional and sufficiently motivated.

KEYWORDS:

• Holocaust
• Holocaust education
• museum educators
• guides
• facilitators