Reflections on What Year 7 Students Know and Understand About the Holocaust: An Argument for Empirical Research in English Primary Schools

Abstract

This chapter presents findings from a subsample of year 7 students (aged 11–12 years) who participated in a national study to explore knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust in English secondary schools. The students reported their only school-based learning experience of the Holocaust had occurred in primary school, and although caution is needed when drawing on secondary school data to attest to activities in primary schools, the findings do provide clues about what students know and understand about the Holocaust, influenced, in part, by learning about the subject in primary school. There is a paucity of evidence in this area, and this chapter highlights the imperative for empirical research in England to examine whether and how the Holocaust should be taught to younger students.