Series History Didactics, 2024, ISBN 978-3-643-91682-2, 130 pages.

Misinformation about Israel and Antisemitic Views in School Textbooks?

Teaching and education mirror what societies want to preserve, initiate, and pass along. Thus, the impact of teachers and school textbooks cannot be overestimated.  It is absolutely necessary, therefore, to ensure high-quality textbooks, which convey balanced views as well as intellectual and unbiased approaches to the topics. The present study by historian and Holocaust education expert Dr. Melanie Carina Schmoll, PhD, offers a fresh approach to analyzing the subjects of Jews, Judaism, current Israel and the Arab-Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts in curricula and relevant textbooks. The study indicates the status of information, problematic content, or words in curricula and history textbooks used in the German state of North Rhein Westphalia. Besides analyzing and just denouncing mistakes, the study also provides options for an exchange of difficult and/ or incorrect content in the textbooks.  It highlights previous weaknesses in textbooks and makes suggestions as to how things can be improved in the future. It is also a good starting point for anyone who would like to take a closer look at textbook research. In particular, the rigorous theory-based analysis provides a scientific-academic framework that might help future textbook researchers.