2024/10/09 by Maren Tribukait · 2 voices
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Comics and Graphic Narratives #Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy #Jewish Identity and Society
paper · doi:10.14324/herj.21.1.12
openalex publication_date 2024/10/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/07
The rise of right-wing populism and extremism has challenged Western societies in recent years and raised fears of the destruction of liberal democracy. Against this backdrop, it seems reasonable to encourage students in history lessons to study the rise of National Socialism in order to prevent similar developments today. However, researchers and educators have emphasised that ‘learning from history’ does not take place in a straightforward way; moreover, it is questionable whether contemporary right-wing extremism can be best understood by studying the Nazi era. In order to understand how history education could contribute to citizenship education in this respect, this article asks how the topic of contemporary right-wing extremism is approached in German educational media, and how it is linked to the Nazi era. Based on an analysis of the pedagogical approaches towards the topic in 28 history textbook series, it investigates how the pedagogical approaches, the narrative about right-wing extremism and the subject position of the reader/player are intertwined in two selected textbooks and in one serious game. In conclusion, the article reflects on whether the innovative educational design of the serious game could inspire history education to find new approaches to the topic and thereby to contribute to citizenship education.