A Critical-Inclusive Approach to Instructing on Genocide Education in the United States: Delivering an Equally Critical and Inclusive Approach to Professional Development

Abstract

This paper presents a new approach to teaching the preconditions for genocide. Bringing together a number of theoretical insights from recent research, it focuses on the pedagogical value of a critical inclusive approach to genocide education. Such an approach incorporates persecuted groups commonly excluded from educational narratives, such as the experiences of homosexuals during the Holocaust. It also places genocide education within a wider framework focused on prevention and advocacy. Through utilizing a critical-inclusive approach to genocide education in the classroom, youth will be equipped with a stronger conception of genocide, genocidal ideologies, and measures that can be taken to contribute to genocide prevention. The paper provides practical guidance on adopting critical and inclusive approaches to genocide education. It highlights the need for professional development for high school educators, including a more process-based approach to understanding the development of risk of genocide. It also moves away from the study of a low number of paradigmatic cases of genocide to an approach that recognizes the recurrent nature of genocide in the modern world. A critical inclusive approach to genocide education offers a powerful new strategy to bring the latest research developments into the classroom