Evil on the Curriculum: July 22 and the Holocaust
The Holocaust and the terrorist attacks that occurred in Norway on July 22, 2011, are the only two historical events explicitly mentioned in the Norwegian national curriculum (LK20). This paper begins by exploring how the curriculum integrates these events into the subjects of Social Studies and History. While their common emphasis on historical knowledge and critical thinking in principle should make both subjects suitable platforms for examining such acts of evil, they are also influenced by a concept of competence that shapes the entire curriculum. This concept is not only at odds with the concept of Bildung, which remains a general aim, but also expresses a desire to master the future by bringing the past under control. However, this approach to history risks reducing knowledge to a mere set of tools. Such reification obscures the possibility of learning from the evils of history in an emphatic sense. As an alternative, I suggest adopting the idea of “working through the past” as formulated by Frankfurt School critical theorist Theodor W. Adorno. This approach offers a way of engaging with history that neither objectifies knowledge nor relies on a false reconciliation with what is traumatic, controversial, or horrific.
Publisert i Speki. Nordisk pedagogisk-filosofisk tidsskrift, 2026
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