Teaching Tough Topics

Teaching Tough Topics: Human Rights, Genocide, and Atrocity Crimes in the 21st Century Classroom provides readers a comprehensive exploration into the teaching of difficult historical and contemporary subjects within academic settings. The book addresses the challenges and methodologies pertinent to presenting topics such as human rights violations, genocide, and other crimes against humanity.


The text begins with an examination of the motivations and rationale behind teaching about crimes and atrocities. It then discusses strategies to build students' requisite background knowledge, ensuring accuracy and the avoidance of perpetuating myths or misconceptions. The book further emphasizes interactive, student-centered strategies and the use of survivor testimonies and primary sources to make a tangible connection to the past and present realities of atrocities. The final section looks at future directions for teaching tough topics in the 21st century classroom.


Teaching Tough Topics is an ideal textbook for courses centered on human rights education, history, social studies, and pedagogical studies. Future and current teachers and educational planners will find it particularly useful for crafting lesson plans and curriculums that discuss difficult subject matter in a responsible, engaging, and informative way.