‘Heroes into zeroes'? The politics of (not) teaching England's imperial past

© 2014 Taylor & Francis.This article revisits the fiercely contested national curriculum history debates of the 1980s and 1990s. Although these debates have been subject to intense academic scrutiny, from educationists and historians alike, too little attention has been paid to the various assumptions about the inclusion (or exclusion) of hero figures in the curriculum. The article situates debate about heroes in the context of both late twentieth-century educational reform and wider historiographical analyses of Britain's (or, better put, England's) perceptions of itself as a post-imperial power. In the battle to define the content of school history, certain commentators invoked hero figures to help press their cause. What becomes clear from analysis of media intervention, however, is an ambiguity about the place and cultural/political purpose of specifically ‘imperial’ heroes. This ambiguity, I argue, reflects contemporary unease about how to confront the imperial past

Performing the other on the popular London stage: Exotic people and places in Victorian pantomime

Performing the other on the popular London stage: Exotic people and places in Victorian pantomim

Exotic bodies and mundane medicines: Advertising and empire in the late-Victorian and Edwardian press

Exotic bodies and mundane medicines: Advertising and empire in the late-Victorian and Edwardian pres

Delivering public services in the mixed economy of welfare : perspectives from the voluntary and community sector in rural England

The voluntary and community sector in England is playing an increasingly important role in the delivery of public services to older adults and in doing so they rely on unpaid volunteers. In this article, we draw on the findings of a recent qualitative study of the impact on the voluntary and community sector of delivering ‘low-level’ public services that promote independent living and wellbeing in old age. The fieldwork focused on services that help older adults aged 70+ living in remote rural communities across three English regions. Those charged with service delivery, which is increasingly the voluntary and community sector, face particular challenges, such as uncertain funding regimes and reliance on volunteer labour

Summary of Research: Collaboration Between Healthcare Professionals and People with Multiple Sclerosis to Develop Communication Tools to Improve the Standard of Multiple Sclerosis Care

: This is a summary of a previously published paper: Joint Healthcare Professional and Patient Development of Communication Tools to Improve the Standard of MS Care. It describes a collaboration between people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) and healthcare professionals (HCPs) to identify challenges in multiple sclerosis (MS) care and design tools to improve communication during consultations