UCL Centre for Holocaust Education
World-leading research-informed teacher education
The UCL Institute of Education has been successfully working in partnership with Pears Foundation for ten years to develop and improve how the Holocaust is taught in every secondary school in England and to positively impact how young people learn about the Holocaust. As a funder Pears Foundation have a genuine interest in the work of the Centre. They are interested in learning and understanding about what we do and how we do it and ensure we have their full support along the way.Dr Andy Pearce, Director, UCL Centre for Holocaust Education
The Centre for Holocaust Education is a truly world-class programme, located within a university ranked first in the world for education. Its unique combination of academic research and practical expertise has enabled it to create an extraordinary programme to help teachers grapple with one of the darkest periods in human history in all its complexity.Sir Trevor Pears CMG
Partner since: 2007
- Funding invested: £11m
Investing in teacher development
Understanding the Holocaust is essential to understanding the modern world. Yet in 2006, research commissioned by Pears Foundation identified a significant national challenge: while teachers recognised the importance of Holocaust education, many lacked the specialist knowledge, confidence and support needed to teach such a complex subject well.
In response, Pears Foundation partnered with the Department for Education and the UCL Institute of Education to establish the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education. From the outset, the ambition was not simply to create teaching resources, but to establish a national centre of excellence, combining world-leading research with historical knowledge and teacher development expertise.
We chose to invest in the UCL Institute of Education because of its internationally recognised expertise in education and its commitment to ensuring that academic research informs classroom practice. By investing in teachers rather than one-off classroom interventions, the Centre is helping improve Holocaust education for successive generations of pupils.
The Centre’s distinctive contribution has been to place research at the heart of teacher development. Landmark national studies of both teachers’ practice and students’ understanding have shaped every aspect of its work, ensuring that professional development, classroom resources and publications respond directly to the realities of teaching the Holocaust.
This approach led to the publication of Understanding the Holocaust: How and Why Did It Happen?—the world’s only research-informed Key Stage 3 Holocaust textbook. To date, 50,000 copies have been distributed free of charge.
Teachers are supported throughout their careers, from initial teacher education to continuing professional development, an accredited Masters module and the Beacon Schools programme.
More than 22,000 teachers have participated in the Centre’s programmes, benefiting an estimated 1.6 million pupils across England.
Alongside its support for the Centre, Pears Foundation also funds research into perpetration and complicity in the Third Reich at UCL’s Centre for Collective Violence, Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Collaboration between the two centres has helped translate new academic research into classroom practice, ensuring that developments in Holocaust scholarship continue to inform the way the subject is taught in schools.