Fight, flight or light: three approaches to teaching difficult past events

ABSTRACT

This paper examines two research questions: How do teachers refer to historical figures when teaching difficult past events? Which approaches to teaching difficult past events are reflected in teachers’ ways of talking about historical figures?

The paper is based on an analysis of lessons by three 11^th grade history teachers in Israel on the controversial Altalena Affair. Each teacher assigned a different role to the historical figures. We argue that awareness of the relationship between the way teachers present historical figures and the way they handle controversial events may provide them with a tool for reflecting on their teaching practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Controversial events
• difficult past
• history teaching
• historical figures

Acknowledgments

We are thankful to the Israel Science Foundation, the Cherrick Center at the Hebrew University and the Israel Ministry of Education for their support. We also thank the principals, teachers and students of the participating schools.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The education system in Israel is heavily segregated, with almost all students enrolled according to their ethno-religious group in Arab, Jewish secular and Jewish religious schools.

2. http://cms.education.gov.il/EducationCMS/Applications/Mankal/EtsMedorim/3/3-1/HoraotKeva/K-2012-8-1-3-1-42.htm.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Israel Science Foundation under grant number 548/14, by scholarship from the Cherrick Center at the Hebrew University, and by the Zalman Aran Scholarship of the Israeli Ministry of Education.

Notes on contributors

Michal Honig

Michal Honig, A lecturer and a didactic advisor at the Kerem Institute for Teacher Training, David Yellin Academic Collage of Education, Jerusalem.

Dan Porat

Dan Porat, The Bella and Israel Unterberg Chair of Jewish Social and Educational History at the Seymour Fox School of Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His fields of interest include Holocaust history and education as well as history teaching and learning