JOURNEY COMPANIONS: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL IDEAS
3.6 Some cases of teaching genocides and controversial issues in post- conflict societies conflict societies
3.6.2 Northern Ireland
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Another challenge is to depict the Holocaust the way it was. There is a challenge of describing the Holocaust so that learners can understand exactly what happened.
The way of communicating what happened, mainly the atrocities which characterised the Holocaust, can also be problematic. There is a need for using appropriate terminologies. For instance, the use of ‘ethnic cleansing’ as a label in the media was disturbing and worrying due to its closeness in sound and positive meaning of
‘cleanliness’ (Blum, Stanton & Richter, 2008; Davies, 2012). Furthermore, the time spent in teaching the Holocaust is also a concern. In this regard, too much time available to teach the Holocaust/controversial issue may create resentment while too short a time could lead to underestimation of the issue (Burtonwood, 2002).
Globally, teaching the Holocaust helps the youth to understand the consequences of prejudices and labelling in any society. In other words, teaching the Holocaust aims at valuing diversity. It helps to understand how the disintegration of democratic values in a society leads to atrocities. Teaching the Holocaust also helps the youth not to be bystanders in face of injustice.
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related to the current situation and what constitutes acceptable political activity. Thus it can be sensitive to discuss questions related to the relationship between Northern Ireland, Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland, the legitimacy of the state, the role of the armed forces, and the use of violence for political purposes (Noctor, 1984).
Given this painful past, strong biased interpretations, and pre-conceived and contradicting partial views are brought by learners into the history classroom because they are from two communities with different views of their past (Stradling, 2003). Some are considered as victims and others as perpetrators. Thus, their emotions can hinder their understanding of controversial issues and are sometimes an obstacle to building a peaceful society (Zembylas & Kambani, 2012).
McCully and Waldron (2015) describe the challenges history teaching faced since the establishment of the national school system in the 1830s as due to British influence and history taught in an intellectualised manner which made it inaccessible to learners. Since the late seventies, the Schools Council History Project emphasised the importance of enquiry and evidence in order to equip learners with skills which can challenge myths and misrepresentations that create divisionism. In this regard, the importance of objectivity is highlighted while learners work on controversial issues of Irish history and they are encouraged to accept a range of perspectives (McCully, 2010; McCully et al., 2002). It was also proposed that learners at the age of 14, when they are viewed as having sufficient maturity, could start using sensitive historical evidence (McCully & Waldron, 2015). In the process learners could develop a series of skills by observing and investigating different aspects of Northern Irish life, both past and present. Additionally it is argued that the local situation can be understood by comparing it with conflicts elsewhere (Smith &
Robinson, 1996; Philips, Goalen, McCully, & Wood, 1999). In this regard McCully explains various strategies used in Irish schools:
Developing in students the skills and concepts to enable them to investigate the past through the evaluation of primary and secondary evidence (…) this enquiry approach encourages students, systematically, to view any narrative of the past as provisional and open to question and, particularly, to give consideration to alternative viewpoints on controversial events. Third, the knowledge component of the curriculum puts considerable emphasis on the study of the history of Ireland but placed in the wider context of British and European developments.
Many of the events designated for investigation were selected precisely because
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they were deemed formative to students’ sense of identity and, therefore, potentially contentious (McCully, 2010, p. 166).
Despite the hope placed in ‘rational thinking’, sometimes contemporary events do not allow, critical thinking, due to emotions they create. Another barrier could be emotion from families due to grievances they have with past events. The teacher’s neutrality could, in line with contemporary issues, also prove to be problematic (McCully et al., 2002). But, an empirical study on the Northern Ireland case has shown that most teachers, whatever their pedagogical shortcomings, consciously strive to be true to the curriculum’s intentions by presenting material in a non- partisan way while also reflecting a range of perspectives and interpretations. More importantly, curriculum developers understood the danger of imposing a ‘master’
narrative that might be used to justify the position of one community at the expense of the other (McCully, 2010). As a result, young-people learn Irish history from different sources and “research to date in Northern Ireland indicates that a process, enquiry-based of history education has some potential to challenge politically and emotionally charged group narratives and thus contribute to peace-building”
(McCully, 2012, p. 151). In this regard, history is not only taken as a school subject but as an agent for creating mutual understanding. History teaching was taken as a way of contributing to transitional justice, while remaining true to its disciplinary foundations.
The term transitional justice has been conceptualised as the process and mechanism in which many post-conflict societies engage as they seek to come to terms with a divisive and violent past (Cole, 2007; Leebaw, 2008). Different programmes such as truth telling, restoring the dignity and preserving the memory of victims, building peace, creating respect for human rights and democracy, to reconciliation became the new goals of transitional justice (Cole, 2007; Murphy &
Gallagher, 2009). As education contributes to building the image of “the other”, it can also contribute to the “never again”.
Before the new history curriculum of 2007 and the signing of an agreement on tolerance and equality in the 1990s (Håvardstun, 2012), the discussed aspects in Irish history did not go beyond Ireland’s partition in the 1920s. It was felt that the
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recent conflict presented too many challenges, especially for younger age groups.
The focus was put on the development of historical skills so that learners can apply them to their studies (Håvardstun, 2012). Even textbooks are very cautious in the presentation of recent more sensitive aspects of the past and lack a clear guidance for teachers in how to guide learners in using an active approach to study the recent past. One scholar recognises that “if the origins of the conflicts are not addressed effectively, then instability remains” (McCully, 2011, p.168). However, McCully (2011) himself recognises the difficulty of discussing the immediate past still characterised by trauma, anger and controversies. A module of work addressing the 1965 to 1985 period was included as an elective topic for older students (McCully, 2010). Even if learners in Northern Ireland study local history at a later stage, they have developed historical skills such as critical thinking in view of multi-perspectivity which can be used in their studies.