SEHE

SEHE – Self-efficacy beliefs and attitudes of primary school teacher students towards Holocaust education in primary school

With regard to Holocaust education, there is a lack of uniform definitions and concepts (Netter, 2022; Becher, 2018; Deckwerth & Leuchter, 2021). However, the debate about an early first beginning with the Holocaust in primary school teaching refers in particular to the relevance of expanding it to include a decidedly Jewish perspective by dealing with Jewish biographies during the Nazi era (Mkayton, 2011).

Various studies show that both adolescents and young adults have little knowledge and a rather defensive attitude towards the Holocaust and National Socialism (ComRes, 2018). The topic of the Holocaust and National Socialism is relatively late on the curriculum in German schools, although children are confronted with information about the Holocaust and anti-Semitic prejudices much earlier (Mkayton, 2018; Plank, 2020). In addition to the late school preparation of the topic, the current findings (German-Israeli Textbook Commission, 2015) also show that the examination of the Holocaust is often limited to the historical context and the perspective of the perpetrators. At the same time, it can be seen that at German universities, especially in the professionalisation of teachers, there are only a small number of seminars on the Holocaust (Tuckel, 2016; Kahle & Nägel, 2016).

Overall, it can be concluded that there is a need for seminars on Holocaust education that are explicitly designed for primary school teacher students and their professional field of action in the context of primary school. Therefore, seminars are offered at the university locations of Passau and Erlangen-Nuremberg that are designed to sensitise primary school teacher students to interdisciplinary Holocaust education in primary school. On the basis of Hansen's (2012, 2017) Profigrafie model, seminar concepts were developed that focus on reflecting on profession-specific and biographical dispositions for thinking and acting with regard to the early first encounter with the Holocaust in primary school.

These seminars are scientifically accompanied in the context of the research project ‘SEHE: Self-efficacy beliefs and attitudes of primary school teacher students towards Holocaust education’ by focusing in particular on the attitudes and self-efficacy beliefs of the students. The effects of the various seminar offers, e.g. compact seminar vs. ongoing seminar, are also to be taken into account.

The following research questions are the focus of the survey:

1. What attitudes and self-efficacy beliefs do students in primary teacher education have before starting the seminar on Holocaust education in primary schools and how are these connected?

2. How do the attitudes and self-efficacy beliefs of primary school teacher students regarding Holocaust education in primary schools change during the seminar?

In order to answer the research questions, the students take part in an online survey before and after the seminar (pre-post design). The students are asked about their attitudes and self-efficacy beliefs using a four-point Likert scale (1 - 4) and about their motivation for attending the seminar using an open-ended sub-question. The scales for measuring attitudes and self-efficacy beliefs are based on items from Deckwerth and Leuchter (2021), which were adapted and summarised. An initial piloting and data collection phase showed that the reliabilities of the scales are good to very good and can be used for the main study after minor adjustments (attitude scale ⍺ = .80; self-efficacy scale ⍺ = .87).

The survey has been conducted since the summer term of 2023, with the data to be collected over several semesters to ensure the representativeness of the sample. In addition, group discussions with the students in the seminars are planned for the further course of action in order to obtain causal explanations of changes in the students' attitudes.

2024:

Hansen, C. & Plank, K. E. (2024): Im Zwiegespräch mit Janusz Korczak – Was wir im Europa des 21. Jahrhunderts vom ‚Weltenwanderer, Tabubrecher und Kräftezähmer‘ lernen können. Wochenschau Verlag.

2023:

Rachbauer, T., & Plank, K.E. (2023). University Tool for Holocaust Memory and Education. Knowledge Exchange : // Digitalisation is a project of the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG). The project is funded by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of the German Federal Ministery for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). (Peer-Reviewed) https://knowledge-exchange-digital.org/case/educational-holocaust-memory-tool/

2020:

Hansen, C./ Plank, K. (Hrsg.): Mind the Gap: Holocaust Education in der Lehrer*innen-Bildung. Innsbruck/ Wien: StudienVerlag.
Plank, K. (2020): "Was verdrängt wird, kehrt mit Macht zurück": Holocaust Education in der Lehrer*innen-Bildung. In: Hansen, C./ Plank, K. (Hrsg.): Mind the Gap: Holocaust Education in der Lehrer*innen-Bildung. Innsbruck/ Wien: StudienVerlag.

Teaching and learning at memorials: professional reflection: continuing professional development as part of the ‘Teaching and Learning at Memorials’ course on 25 October 2020 and 24 February 2021 at the BZK Mainkofen and the University of Passau.
From Digital to Spatial Turn in Holocaust Education? (Re)Locating Remembrance and its Requirements and Opportunities for Media Education as part of the Akita International University (AIU) - Research Week together with Dr. Tamara Rachbauer, AIU.
‘Vom Digital zum Spatial Turn in der Holocaust Education? Möglichkeiten und Voraussetzungen einer digitalen VerORTung von Erinnerung’ at the conference ‘Digital Memory - Digital History - Digital Mapping’ together with Dr. Tamara Rachbauer, 22.09.2021, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz.
‘Teach and Reach - Professional Reflexive Work with Graphic Materials’; in the context of the certificate course ‘Teaching and Learning at Memorial Sites’, together with Professor Christina Hansen, 15 November 2018 and 14 December 2018, Klinikum Mainkofen and University of Passau.
‘Holocaust Education in Teacher Training. A qualitative study of the attitudes of prospective teachers towards Holocaust education’; lecture at the international symposium Holocaust Education in Teacher Training, together with Professor Christina Hansen, 25 January 2018, Klinikum Mainkofen.

Project Management

Prof. Dr. Christina Hansen, Dr. Kathrin Eveline Plank - Chair of Education with a focus on Diversity Research and Educational Spaces in Middle Childhood	University of Passau Passau
Prof. Dr. Sabine Martschinke, Leonora Gerbeshi - Chair of Primary Education with a focus on dealing with Heterogeneity	FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg

Chair of Educational Science with a focus on Diversity Research and Middle Childhood Education