A Phenomenographic Study of Youth Conceptualizations of Evil: Order-Words and the Politics of Evil

Students in secondary social studies examine descriptions of historical events and rhetoric by politicians that utilize the word and concept of evil. The label of evil can evoke specific images, feelings, and thoughts; oversimplify historical and contemporary situations; and decrease students’ sense of agency. This phenomenographical study included individual semi-structured interviews and focus groups. The outcome space revealed five referential aspects: evil as images, evil as affects (bodily) and effects (cognitive), evil as something that is abnormal and/or extraordinary, evil as human, and evil as subjective. One salient implication of this study is that teachers, textbook authors, and curriculum designers need to more explicitly engage with naming and describing evil in social studies education in the context of Deleuze and Guattari’s (1980/2008) order-words

Banal and Fetishized Evil: Implicating Ordinary Folk in Genocide Education

Genocide education would benefit from a renewed focus on how ordinary people perpetuate atrocities more so than villains. Ordinary evil is often understood via Hannah Arendt’s political theory, which explains how folks can contribute thoughtlessly to genocide. This banality of evil explains an important aspect of human behavior, especially when understood in conjunction with Elizabeth Minnich’s work on intensive and extensive evil, as well as Stanley Milgram’s research on obedience. Yet, Arendt, Minnich, and Milgram do not explain ordinary people who become eager killers. Thus, the addition of Ernest Becker’s idea of the fetishization of evil is important. Students would benefit from engaging with Arendt and Becker’s theories in tandem, as well as from learning about disobedience and ways to expand fetishized perceptions of others

Teaching the Climate Crisis: Existential Considerations

It is urgent that educators in social studies and science (among other disciplines) consider the ethical imperative of teaching the climate crisis—the future is at stake. This article considers a barrier to teaching this contentious topic effectively: existential threat. Through the lens of terror management theory, it becomes clear that climate catastrophe is an understandably fraught topic as it can serve as a reminder of death in two ways. As will be explained in this article, simultaneously such discussions can elicit not only mortality salience from considering the necrocene produced by climate catastrophe, but also existential anxiety arising from worldview threat. This threat can occur when Western assumptions are called into question as well as when there is disagreement between those with any worldviews that differ. After summarizing relevant aspects of terror management theory and analyzing the teaching of the climate crisis as an existential affair, specific strategies to help manage this situation (in and out of the classroom) are explored: providing conceptual tools, narrating cascading emotions, carefully using humor to diffuse anxiety, employing language and phrasing that does not overgeneralize divergent groups, and priming ideas of tolerance and even nurturance of difference

La résistance n'est pas futile : Badiou, simulacra et un récit des Pays-Bas occupés par les nazis

This paper engages with Alain Badiou’s understanding of evil as simulacrum in secondary social studies and history classrooms. Through family oral history as a vector for thinking with Badiou’s philosophy this paper explores Badiou’s premise that the Nazis upheld a simulacrum as truth, to the detriment and horror of millions. Anthonius and Johanna’s actions, members of the Dutch resistance during the Second World War, provide an example of the complexities of ethics during difficult times that can inform teachers as they explore nuances regarding how ordinary people can act independently from authority, but interconnected with others in troubling times. Personal anecdotes are powerful tools in shaping knowledge and attitudes; thus, stories of resistance in our classrooms are vital as we seek to make emancipatory and egalitarian changes to our world.Comment les éducatrices et les éducateurs peuvent-ils organiser le programme d'études sociales de manière à déterminer comment les maux historiques et contemporains se produisent et de manière à mettre en évidence les gens ordinaires travaillant collectivement en tant que des agents du changement ? Cet article fournit une avenue possible : appliquer la compréhension d'Alain Badiou de certains maux comme des simulacres aux histoires de résistance des Pays-Bas occupés par les nazis. À travers une analyse du discours des entretiens avec mes grands-parents paternels, je donne un exemple de la façon dont les enseignantes et les enseignants pourraient compléter l'étude de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale au but éducatif de leur encourager à devenir des sujets qui pensent indépendamment de l'autorité mais en interconnexion avec des autres. De cette façon, les enseignantes et les enseignants pourraient rendre les événements historiques plus personnels dans leurs classes, permettant aux élèves d'explorer comment les gens ordinaires et interconnectés dirigent les sociétés, par opposition aux héros ou méchants singuliers. Les histoires de résistance interprétées à travers la philosophie de Badiou fournissent un point de départ éthique aux élèves et aux enseignant(e)s pour réfléchir à la manière dont ils pourraient agir dans des circonstances similaires. Les anecdotes personnelles sont de puissants outils pour façonner les connaissances et les attitudes; ainsi les histoires de résistance dans nos salles de classe sont vitales alors que nous cherchons à apporter des changements émancipateurs et égalitaires à notre monde

Fighting the plague: “Difficult” knowledge as sirens’ song in teacher education

Of the many plagues that affect communities today, a particularly insidious one is indifference and depersonalization. This plague has been articulated by Albert Camus and then taken up in an educational context by Maxine Greene. In this article we, the authors, respond to Greene’s call to co-compose curricula with our students to fight this plague. Recognizing the role of difficult knowledge as well as conscious and unconscious defenses, we develop an approach to “diversity” harmonious with radical love during these troubled times of conflict and increased visibility of hatred. Through a weaving of our experiential, embodied knowledge with theory, we consider how we might invite students to consider contemporary, historical, and ongoing inequity and structural violence. Like Sirens luring sailors to precarious shores, we seek to entice teachers and students to the difficult knowledge they might otherwise avoid as all of us together consider our ethical responsibilities to each other

Preparing Pre-Service Educators to Teach Worldview-Threatening Curriculum

Emotions are central to teaching potentially polarizing content. This study asked pre-service teachers to engage with ideas from Ernest Becker (1973, 1975) and terror management theory (TMT) from experimental social psychology about defensive responses. In group training sessions before their teaching practicum and focus groups after their practicum, pre-service teachers considered the following questions: How might we prevent ourselves, as teachers, from treating a student harshly (or with dismissiveness) when their worldview clashes with ours? What might we need to do with our classes before worldview threatening lessons begin in order to mitigate defensive compensatory reactions? Participants explored how to facilitate contentious and potentially polarizing content and discussions so as to prevent unhelpful, defensive reactions by both students and teachers. This content included derogating people or concepts, coaxing or coercing others to your view, expressing views related to eliminating different worldviews, as well as appropriating aspects of other worldviews. A dramaturgical analysis identified participant objectives, conflicts, tactics, attitudes, emotions and subtexts. Participants explored how to anticipate and avoid worldview threat and self-esteem threat, navigate tense pedagogical spaces, build capacity for expressing uncomfortable emotions and diffuse threat with (appropriate) humour. Through their experiences, these pre-service teachers also increased their own emotional awareness. For participants, TMT became both an attitude and a teachable theory. The authors hope that both direct and indirect uses of TMT in educational contexts can help nourish less fraught social relations, helping us (as educators and humans) gain perspective on our beliefs and those of others without devaluing emotional responses

Ma(r)king The Unthinkable: Cultural and Existential Engagements of Extreme Historical Violence

Culture is an integral part of social studies education, and is a generative line of inquiry when placed in conversation with existential concerns. This post qualitative study engages with terror management theory (and its inspiration, the writing of Ernest Becker) to think about culture in the context of extreme historical violence. In particular, the authors re/read accounts from the Nazi massacre of Jews in Jedwabne, Poland (1941) and the Hutu atrocities against Tutsis in Rwanda (1994) while pondering how perpetrators bonded over culture, ordinarilized evil, fetishized evil, and attempted to triumph over death. The authors invite readers to grapple with identifying (re)new(ed) ways of promoting a world that can hurt less by engaging with accounts of extreme violence to think through the cultivation of non-violent ways of be(com)ing