Smartphones and Mirrors: using presentisms constructively in the classroom.

Here, Jessie Phillips, History Teacher at Sawston Village College, takes her thinking about presentism in the history classroom further. She points out that this tendency to interpret the past through present values and concepts is used by historians as a conceptual scaffold. She challenges us to think about how presentism can help pupils make their own meanings out of history. She builds on David Armitage’s … Continue reading Smartphones and Mirrors: using presentisms constructively in the classroom.

Stacking the Scholarship Shelf

Thanks to Simon Beale (@SPBeale), Associate Assistant Headteacher and Subject Lead of History & Politics at Vyners School, for this blogpost. Simon is a co-founder of @historybookgrp. I have just returned from Bristol and the 2022 Historical Association national conference. It was my first time attending the event and I was blown away at the wealth of expertise being shared by and with the history … Continue reading Stacking the Scholarship Shelf

1381 HATF: co-planning across distance

In this blogpost HATF People of 1381 participants, Andrew Sweet (@AndrewSweet4) and Rachel Wilson (@rachelswilson91), share the first part of their work relating to the Fellowship. Their school settings and students are very different, but their aims and curricular intentions are similar, they have planning autonomy and are able to plan with their own students learning needs as a priority. Their model for co-planning is … Continue reading 1381 HATF: co-planning across distance

1381 HATF: it’s good to talk!

Thanks to David Ingledew (@ingledew_j) for this blogpost reflecting on the powerful way that a HATF enables history teachers and teacher educators to learn from academic historians. On my way home from the Historical Association’s People of 1381 Teacher Fellowship programme residential at Mansfield College, Oxford, I was reminded of the mid-1990s advert for BT fronted by Oscar nominated actor Bob Hoskins. In a series … Continue reading 1381 HATF: it’s good to talk!

1381 HATF: calling time on classroom myths and misconceptions!

The Historical Association’s People of 1381 Teacher Fellowship programme is underway. It began with a residential at Mansfield College, Oxford last week. The team of fellowship teachers spent an intense and enjoyable two days working with the People of 1381 academic project team to understand what their research is revealing. It is now our task to bring this new research to teachers and pupils. This … Continue reading 1381 HATF: calling time on classroom myths and misconceptions!

Decolonising Source Analysis and Introducing Sikh Female History to Year 9

Many thanks to Dr Danielle Donaldson, Head of Department, Concord College, Shrewsbury for this blogpost sharing her department’s work to extend the range of sources used in class and to teach the history of Sikh women. The curriculum intent & context We have been working on decolonising and integrating more representative history in our schemes of work at Concord College. Our enquiries are aimed to … Continue reading Decolonising Source Analysis and Introducing Sikh Female History to Year 9

Empire blogpost 1: asking different questions about Empire

This blogpost is the first in a series written by Richard Kennett. He is a member of HA Secondary Committee, assistant headteacher in Bristol and co-author of the new MShed published book: “Bristol and Transatlantic Slavery”. Like many of you I have been thinking a lot about how we teach the British Empire this year. The Black Lives Matter protests and reflections that followed it … Continue reading Empire blogpost 1: asking different questions about Empire

What do we know? How do we know? What do they say? Knowledge for history teachers and students!

The name Richard Brown is probably unfamiliar to many people reading this blogpost. But Richard taught for many years, was an editor of Teaching History and is a Fellow of both the HA and the RHS. He has been creating websites for many years and the purpose of this blogpost is to make more history teachers aware of them. They are very much worth exploring … Continue reading What do we know? How do we know? What do they say? Knowledge for history teachers and students!

Decolonising the curriculum one step at a time: lessons on race in the early British Empire

In this blogpost, Jen Thornton (@jen_a_thornton), Head of History at Loreto Grammar School, shares her recent work to improve the history curriculum. Jen started by listening to students, she has gone back to the scholarship to gain the knowledge she needs, she has consulted and worked with colleagues, and she is clear that this is work in progress. Her description of this work and her … Continue reading Decolonising the curriculum one step at a time: lessons on race in the early British Empire

Enriching history in a time of Covid

History teachers have pulled off incredible feats since the start of 2021 and are pulling together to get better at helping pupils to get better at history despite the ongoing pandemic disruption. #disthist has been useful for gathering ideas into one place in the twittersphere, the @histassoc remote learning hubs are available and @TMHistoryIcons held a really well-timed distance learning day that was so supportive. … Continue reading Enriching history in a time of Covid