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Scholar Commons > Open Access Journals > GSP > Vol. 19 (2025) > Iss. 2 (2025)

 

Abstract

This article outlines guiding principles for teaching “difficult pasts”—episodes of large-scale, identity-based violence such as genocide, crimes against humanity, colonialism, and enslavement—in ways that promote peace, human rights, and the prevention of future atrocities. Drawing from the fields of Holocaust and Genocide Education (HGE), Global Citizenship Education (GCED), Peace Education (PE), and Human Rights Education (HRE), it argues that instruction should move beyond the memorization of historical facts toward developing students’ socio-emotional and behavioral capacities to recognize and resist processes of othering, discrimination, and violence. The brief presents three main areas of guidance: curricular content, emphasizing conceptual understanding over rote knowledge and the exploration of violence as a process; pedagogical methods, advocating for interdisciplinary approaches, active learning, and schools as inclusive civic communities; and educational policy, highlighting the need for teacher training, mandated curricula, and integration within broader human rights and peace frameworks. Recognizing the political sensitivities of confronting local histories, the brief proposes multiple levels of engagement—from local to international cases—allowing educators to tailor content to context. Ultimately, teaching difficult pasts offers a transformative opportunity to equip young people with the knowledge, empathy, and agency needed to build more just and peaceful societies.

First Page

3

Last Page

21

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the many people who have provided feedback, guidance, and support to shape this article, which was first drafted during my time as a Fulbright Specialist with UNESCO’s International Program on Holocaust and Genocide Education. Thank you to the team at the US Permanent Mission to UNESCO and the Commission Franco-Américaine Fulbright for making this possible. (The Trump Adminstration has since withdrawn the United States from UNESCO.) Thank you to all the experts who provided their perspectives on these topics, including Juan Camilo Aljuri, Dina Bailey, Michelle Bellino, Mark Brennan, Daniela Muñoz, Clara Ramírez Barat, Tali Nates, Natasha Robinson, María Andrea Rocha, Ashley Rogers, Mandy Sanger, and Felisa Tibbitts. Thanks, as well, to the five students at Binghamton University’s Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention who worked tirelessly on researching current educational policies and practices around the world: Samuel Budoi, Isabella Giraldo, Chet Guenther, Virginia Kuss, and Quinton Walsh. Finally, thank you to the team at UNESCO, especially Karel Francapane, Sylvana Lewin, and Isabel Tamoj, for their hospitality and support.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5038/1911-9933.19.2.2075

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

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