English history teachers’ views on what substantive content young people should be taught

Public and policy discourse about the content of history curricula is frequently contested, but the voice of history teachers is often absent from such debate. Drawing on a large scale on-line survey of history teachers in England, this paper explores their responses to major curriculum reforms proposed by the Coalition government in February 2013. In particular it examines teachers' responses to government plans to prescribe a list of topics, events and individuals to be taught chronologically that all students would be expected to study. Nearly 550 teachers responded to the survey, and more than two-thirds of them provided additional written comments on the curriculum proposals. This paper examines these comments, with reference to a range of curriculum models. The study reveals a deep antagonism towards the proposals for various reasons, including concerns about the extent and nature of the substantive content proposed and the way in which it should be sequenced. Analysis of these reactions provides an illuminating insight into history teachers’ perspectives. While the rationales that underpin their thinking seem to have connections to a variety of different theoretical models, the analysis suggests that more attention could usefully be devoted to the idea of developing frameworks of reference

Historical Association survey of history in secondary schools in England 2021

Executive summary Nature of the survey This report details the results of an online survey of history teachers conducted by the Historical Association between May and July 2021. Responses were received from 316 history teachers in England, working in 286 different contexts, including 214 state-funded, non-selective schools, 20 grammar schools, 37 independent schools and eight sixth-form colleges. Most respondents were experienced teachers with at least five years’ experience. The vast majority (96%) described themselves as White, and we therefore acknowledge that representation of the views of those from a Black or Asian British background or from other minority groups is limited. Teaching diverse histories within Key Stage 3 Some aspects of the history of migration to Britain are taught by 73% of the schools that responded to the survey, with 40% of schools treating the topic as the focus of a specific unit or enquiry sequence. Such teaching appears more common in non-selective state schools and where the majority of the school population is Black or from other minority ethnic backgrounds (BAME). The period most likely to feature in relation to teaching about migration to Britain is the twentieth century. The majority of schools (82%) reported teaching (at least) a series of lessons about some aspect of the British Empire, although this appears to be more common within state-maintained schools than in the independent sector. In only seven schools among those represented by the respondents would it be possible for students to end their compulsory study of history without having learned anything about the history of the British Empire. (In all these schools, the majority of students are White). The periods most commonly taught about in relation to the British Empire are the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (especially the latter), but the number of schools dealing with the twentieth century – and thus with decolonisation – are smaller. The vast majority of schools (86%) reported teaching a series of lessons (or a more substantial unit) about the transatlantic slave trade. Four dimensions were included by at least 90% of all state-maintained schools: ‘the development of the “triangular trade”’; ‘the experiences of enslaved peoples’; ‘forms of resistance or rebellion by enslaved peoples’; and ‘other forms of opposition, including the campaign for abolition’. Only around 60% of schools included considerations of earlier forms of enslavement and slave trading before looking specifically at the ‘triangular trade’. Consideration of the ‘legacies of the trade in enslaved peoples’ was only included in the curriculum of 13% of respondents’ schools. Only 42% of schools reported allocating a series of lessons or a short unit to teaching about the history of a non-European nation. Schools with a majority BAME population or an even mix of students from different backgrounds are more likely to teach such a topic (54% report doing so) than predominantly White schools (38%). Only 23% of schools reported devoting a series of lessons to teaching an aspect of Black or Asian British history. Most schools (57%) reported devoting just one or two lessons to such history. The ethnic mix of the student population seems to be significant here, with 36% of those with a majority BAME population devoting a series of lessons to Black and Asian history, compared with 23% of more evenly mixed schools and just 18% of schools with a majority White population. The length of schools’ Key Stage 3 curriculum also seems to have some bearing here, with 28% of schools with a three-year curriculum choosing to devote a series of lessons to Black and Asian British history and only 13% of those with a shorter Key Stage 3 curriculum doing so. Curriculum changes being made within Key Stage 3 The vast majority of schools (87%) report having made substantial changes to their Key Stage 3 curriculum in recent years to address issues of diversity (which here include other dimensions of diversity – such as the inclusion of women, disabled people, LGBTQ+ histories and working class history – as well as wider world history or the inclusion of Black and Asian British history). Only 4% of respondents’ schools reported having made no changes at all, and these 11 schools are all those in which the majority of students are White. The most important reasons cited for making changes to the curriculum were a sense of social justice, to better represent the nature of history and the stimulus of recent events. Among those who had made some change, the most important barriers they had encountered were lack of money for resources and lack of time (which were also cited as the most significant reasons for not making changes by those who had not done so). Other prominent obstacles cited were lack of subject knowledge, lack of training and lack of access to resources. The main sources of support valued by those who had made changes were their own engagement with historical scholarship and the support of subject associations. Hearing directly from historians (for example, through a webinar) was also frequently cited as a very important source of support. GCSE uptake and subject choices The vast majority of respondents (86%) report that the take-up of history at GCSE by different students reflects the ethnic make-up of their school population. When asked directly about how far they agreed with the claim that their particular GCSE specification ‘allows sufficient scope for them to include the history of specific groups’, respondents were most inclined to disagree in relation to the inclusion of the history of people with disabilities (88% disagreed), the inclusion of the history of LGBTQ+ (87% disagreed) and the inclusion of the history of Black and Asian British people (71% disagreed). The responses were more positive in relation to the inclusion of women (50% disagreeing) and lower/working class people (40% disagreeing), but it is clear that there are serious concerns about how adequately GCSE curricula reflect the diverse reality of past societies. There are noticeable differences between different exam boards in terms of how satisfied teachers are about the scope to include more diverse histories, although small numbers opting for particular boards make it difficult to judge the significance of these differences. However, despite the apparent concern among teachers for a more diverse and representative history curriculum, there appeared to have been considerable reluctance to choose topics for study that offered a more diverse perspective, at least in looking beyond Europe. There is some prospect of change here, in that almost one-third of respondents (32%) indicated that they were contemplating or had set in motion some changes, in most (but certainly not all) cases in order to improve the diversity of the curriculum that they offered. The particular change most commonly mentioned in this respect was the decision to switch to a thematic study of migration to Britain (now offered by all three of the English exam boards). A-level uptake and subject choices At A-level, a much higher proportion of respondents report a disparity in terms of subject take-up and the ethnic mix of their school population: only 65% of schools report a close match between the ethnic profile of their cohort and of those taking history, although only one respondent attributed the lack of take-up among BAME students to the curriculum. Respondents were generally more positive (than they had been in relation to GCSE) about the scope within their A-level specifications to include the history of specific groups, although the pattern of concern was similar, with most agreement in relation to there being sufficient scope to include the history of lower or working class groups (74% agreement) and the experiences of women (68%), less agreement in relation to the inclusion of the history of Black and Asian British people (43%) and least agreement in relation to the inclusion of LGBTQ+ people or people with disabilities (30% agreement in both cases). Again, these concerns were not matched by a willingness to opt for less traditional or more diverse subject units (looking beyond Europe), and only 20% of respondents gave any indication that they were considering making changes to either their choice of A-level units or their choice of exam board, although some of the comments made here did point to changes being driven by a concern to diversity the curriculum. In response to a final question about the possible impact of the periods of school closure on sixth-form leavers’ preparedness for university-level study of history, teachers appeared to be particularly concerned about their students’ lack of exam experience, but also acutely aware that the lack of opportunities for class discussion and debate would leave many students ill-equipped to engage in university seminars. In other respects, it was clear that experiences to which some had responded negatively (lack of access to university libraries, for example) had provided an invaluable stimulus to others, leading to improvements in independent research skills, for example

History teachers as curriculum-makers in policy and practice: quantitative insights from England and Scotland

In England and Scotland, the History National Curriculum avoids the prescription of specific content; expecting schools instead to devise a curriculum appropriate to their pupils within broad guidance. This means in both countries, teachers apparently have responsibility for constructing a curriculum: selecting content, sequencing learning and identifying resources, but only in Scotland is it explicitly stated in policy that teachers act as curriculum-makers. Based on the 2021 UK Historical Association survey, this paper explores the extent to which history teachers in England and Scotland use their curricular autonomy to respond to calls for diversified curricula. Drawing on responses from 8% of England’s secondary schools and 20% of Scotland’s, the data suggest that, although teachers in Scotland are more explicitly framed as curriculum-makers in policy, it is history teachers in English secondary schools who are more likely to have diversified their curricula. The paper explores possible explanations for these findings and suggests that demographic diversity, inspection cultures, and knowledge exchange networks exercise greater influence over teachers’ willingness to diversify their curricula than the positioning of teachers in policy

History teachers as curriculum-makers in policy and practice: quantitative insights from England and Scotland

In England and Scotland, the History National Curriculum avoids the prescription of specific content; expecting schools instead to devise a curriculum appropriate to their pupils within broad guidance. This means in both countries, teachers apparently have responsibility for constructing a curriculum: selecting content, sequencing learning and identifying resources, but only in Scotland is it explicitly stated in policy that teachers act as curriculum-makers. Based on the 2021 UK Historical Association survey, this paper explores the extent to which history teachers in England and Scotland use their curricular autonomy to respond to calls for diversified curricula. Drawing on responses from 8% of England’s secondary schools and 20% of Scotland’s, the data suggest that, although teachers in Scotland are more explicitly framed as curriculum-makers in policy, it is history teachers in English secondary schools who are more likely to have diversified their curricula. The paper explores possible explanations for these findings and suggests that demographic diversity, inspection cultures, and knowledge exchange networks exercise greater influence over teachers’ willingness to diversify their curricula than the positioning of teachers in policy

Student access to the curriculum in an age of performativity and accountability: an examination of policy enactment

The curriculum is often the target of reform and governments use a range of accountability measures to ensure compliance. This paper examines the decisions schools in England make regarding history provision, in a period of curriculum change, and the potential consequences of these decisions. Drawing on a large, longitudinal data set, of primary and secondary material, the study examines the relationship between the number of students entered for public examination in history in England and a range of situated and material factors (Braun, Maguire and Ball, 2010). The data suggest that particular measures of accountability are effective in shaping school decision-making, but the type of school, socio-economic nature of the school intake, and students’ prior attainment are also important factors in understanding the decisions made. This does result in an inequitable access to history education; this inequity exists between different types of schools and socio-economic areas, and is also evident within schools where students with low prior attainment are less likely to be allowed to study history

A High Magnification UV Lens for High Temperature Optical Strain Measurements

Digital Image Correlation (DIC) measures full-field strains by tracking displacements of a specimen using images taken before and after deformation. At high temperatures, materials emit light in the form of blackbody radiation, which can interfere with DIC images. To screen out that light, DIC has been recently adapted by using ultraviolet (UV) range cameras, lenses, and filters. Before now, UV-DIC had been demonstrated at the centimeter scale using commercially available UV lenses and filters. Commercial high-magnification lenses using visible light have also been used for DIC. However, there is currently no commercially available high-magnification lens that will allow images to be taken (a) in the UV range, (b) at a submillimeter scale, and (c) from a relatively long working distance separating a specimen inside a test chamber and a camera outside the chamber. In this work, a custom UV high-magnification lens is demonstrated to perform high-magnification, high-temperature DIC measurements. To demonstrate the capabilities of this lens, a series of thermo-mechanical tests was run on a stainless-steel ring specimen. Two UV cameras performed simultaneous measurements: one at lower magnification using a commercial UV lens, and one with the custom high-magnification UV lens. At room temperature, the custom lens produces sufficiently bright images to perform DIC, while at high temperature (demonstrated to 900 °C) the images retained sufficient contrast while avoiding oversaturation. The lens can detect submillimeter rigid motion and tensile strains from long working distances and high magnification. These tests show that the custom lens is suitable for use in high-magnification UV-DIC measurements

Learning to teach history as a continual process of hypothesis-testing : a critical examination of key principles of the internship scheme

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