From Empathetic Understanding to Engaged Witnessing: Encountering Trauma in the Holocaust Classroom
A commitment to empathetic understanding shaped the field of religious studies; although subject to critique, it remains an important teaching practice where students are charged with the task of recognizing, and perhaps even appreciating, a worldview that appears significantly different from their...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
[2015]
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| In: |
Teaching theology and religion
Year: 2015, Volume: 18, Issue: 2, Pages: 103-120 |
| IxTheo Classification: | AH Religious education BH Judaism TK Recent history ZD Psychology ZF Education |
| Further subjects: | B
empathetic understanding
B Holocaust B Critical Pedagogy B trigger warnings B Trauma |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | A commitment to empathetic understanding shaped the field of religious studies; although subject to critique, it remains an important teaching practice where students are charged with the task of recognizing, and perhaps even appreciating, a worldview that appears significantly different from their own. However, when the focus of the course is historical trauma there are significant epistemological and ethical reasons empathetic understanding may not be our best pedagogical strategy. Drawing primarily on my experience teaching a general education class “The Holocaust and Its Impact” at California State University, Bakersfield, I advocate replacing empathetic understanding with engaged witnessing as a pedagogical framework and strategy for teaching traumatic knowledge. To make this case, I delineate four qualities of engaged witnessing and demonstrate their use in teaching about the Holocaust. |
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| ISSN: | 1467-9647 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Teaching theology and religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/teth.12273 |