Teaching Villainification in Social Studies: Pedagogies to Deepen Understanding of Social Evils (Poster 8)

• In Event: Teaching Villainification in Social Studies: Pedagogies to Deepen Understanding of Social Evils

Abstract

Identifying the “real” villain of the Holocaust may be more difficult than many think. Of course, there is the obvious (super)villain in the story of the Holocaust: Hitler (and the associated Nazi regime), but there is also an important, albeit often hidden, villain: the fact that Nazism itself is built on the villainification of Jews. We also can see a basket of banal villains that may arise when Holocaust education is the topic of conversation: thoughtless administrators, watered down curriculum, and unprepared teachers. It is easy for those creating, teaching, and learning curriculum alike, to become tied up in superficial villainification narratives. In order to grapple with the reality of human evil, it is urgent to unpack and interrogate another kind of evil that exists in Holocaust education in the United States: a triad of intertwining villains they describe as blanket emotionality, presumed neutrality, and toothless objectivity.

Author

• Brandon Haas, University of North Carolina - Greensboro