About the Project
History is a particularly contentious subject within the school curriculum, as seen in numerous ‘history wars’ around the globe. Part of the issue is related to pedagogical approaches, and whether history should be approached as a form of cultural capital to be transmitted, or taught as a discipline; such issues are reflected in recent ‘social realist’ debates about knowledge and the curriculum. At the heart of both issues are arguments about the purpose of teaching young people about the past. However we know little about how teachers conceptualise the curriculum which they enact, and the factors which shape this process. Similarly we also know little about how young people experience the history curriculum they encounter, and whether it has an impact on their sense of self and belonging, and what (if any) perceived utility is there in knowing about the past, and what is considered worth knowing. This study would look to provide a rich, in-depth, qualitative insight into the approaches adopted by selected history departments (which could be located within the UK or elsewhere), drawing on the views of history teachers, and examining its impact and connection to students within those contexts. There is likely to be a particular focus on: the teachers’ medium and long term plans they devise, which outline their intended content selection; observations in schools to see what is taught; as interviews/focus groups with history teachers and their students to explore the rationale for content selection and how this is received by students; life narratives to examine the influences on teachers’ decision making processes.
References
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Barton, K., & Levstik, L. (2004). Teaching history for the common good. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Cain, T., & Chapman, A. (2014). Dysfunctional dichotomies? Deflating bipolar constructions of curriculum and pedagogy through case studies from music and history. The Curriculum Journal, 25, 111–129.
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Foster, S., Ashby, R., Lee, P., & Howson, J. (2008). Usable historical pasts: A study of students’ frameworks of the past: Full research report ESRC end of award report (RES-000-22-1676). Swindon: ESRC.
Grever, M., & Stuurman, S. (2007). Beyond the canon: History for the twenty first century. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Harris, R., & Burn, K. (2011). Curriculum theory, curriculum policy and the problem of ill-disciplined thinking. Journal of Education Policy, 26, 245–261.
Harris, R., & Haydn, T. (2006). Pupils' enjoyment of history: what lessons can teachers learn from their pupils? The Curriculum Journal ,17, 315–333.
Harris, R., & Reynolds, R. (2014). The history curriculum and its personal connection to students from minority ethnic backgrounds. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 46, 464–486.
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