British Teachers Avoiding Subjects (Holocaust, Crusades) That Offend Muslim Students

[Sasaki Kojiro]

[Duke of Gloucester]

Don't believe everything you read in the Daily Mail. It would be interesting to read the actual report but since the journalist does not identify the report's title, authors or who commissioned it, I haven't found it. I have found reference to a report commissioned by the Historical Association (a Professional Association of History Teachers) about controversial issues at primary level. This would not cover coursework. Until we find the actual report the article is based on, we won't know what its actual findings are.

Avoiding controversy does not sound like the sort of thing any of the history teachers I know would do.

[Banquo's Ghost]

Daily Mail. That should tell you all you need to know about the slant, Lemur. If I read the article properly, there were anecdotes from only three schools.

There is certainly a problem with schools (across Europe) trying to be overly politically correct. History as a whole is threatened as a core subject in many places precisely because of the difficulties presented by interpretation. In the UK, because of the very restrictive curriculum, there is little time for debate. Students are coached to pass exams, not to engage in thinking. Thus sensitive subjects can be avoided, but I would imagine this is more to do with avoiding real teaching and getting the school up the league tables rather than Muslim sensitivities.

[English assassin]

Daily mail is teh filth. But the story ran in the Grauniad too.

Report available here http://www.dfes.gov.uk/research/prog...page=11&type=0 scroll to the bottom of the page.

I might give it a read at lunchtime, but from a skim it looks as if what happened was that two paragraphs of a useful piece of research that may inform practice in a difficult area has been reported by journos.

A very very quick skim of the report shows neither cause for complaceny or alarm.

[Banquo's Ghost]

Report available here http://www.dfes.gov.uk/research/prog...page=11&type=0 scroll to the bottom of the page.

Thank you for the link.

It reads (on quick skim) as an intelligent investigation into teaching emotive and controversial history and how to upskill teachers so they don't avoid or misrepresent views.

[Adrian II]

It found some teachers are reluctant to cover the atrocity for fear of upsetting students whose beliefs include Holocaust denial.

If you put it this way, this is certainly the case in The Netherlands. In some schools with large numbers of pupils from Moroccan and other Arab homes these lessons tend to degenerate into bickering and acrimony. Orhers have found ways to tackle the subject, most don't have the problem at all. It's really more of a symbolic fracas. A bit like the evolution/creation issue in American schools: some schools in certain States become virtual battlegrounds, whereas most States don't have any curriculum infighting whatsoever.

[lancelot]

I lifted this from the document provided in the link-

For example, a history department in a northern city recently avoided selecting the Holocaust as a topic for GCSE coursework for fear of confronting anti-Semitic sentiment and Holocaust denial among some Muslim pupils.

Completely unacceptable. Religon has no place in a classroom (except obviously in religious studies). And if any student was ignorant enought to deny the holocaust in a class I was teaching...I...I dont know what Id do quite frankly- think s/he was a bloody moron for starters...

Ignorant beliefs should be challenged not allowed to grow.

In another department, teachers were strongly challenged by some Christian parents for their treatment of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the history of the state of Israel that did not accord with the teachings of their denomination.

Again, get all religon out of the classroom.

In another history department, the Holocaust was taught despite anti-Semitic sentiment among some pupils, but the same department deliberately avoided teaching the Crusades at Key Stage 3 because their balanced treatment of the topic would have directly challenged what was taught in some local mosques.

Good, a balanced treatment should be taught and challenge what was taught in some mosques.


It may only be a school here and there at the moment but you can bet your ass, this phenomenon will likely spread.

This whole affair seems to be another example of the many 'benefits' of religion...we are now at the beginnings of a stage where a (hopefully) balanced, as partisan as possible view on some contentious periods of history is now too much to ask of the education system.

And more to the point, why should students who dont have any particular religious affiliation have to loose out? There is a simple answer here- leave your religion at the door- be good historians and try to be objective.

[English assassin]

It may only be a school here and there at the moment but you can bet your ass, this phenomenon will likely spread.

Hence the need for the report, which is rather good, really.