Elizabeth Carr writes here about a new scheme of work she developed to teach students about diversity in Victorian society. When dealing with a concept such as diversity, it can be easy for students to slip into stereotypes based on simplistic understandings of the experiences of people at the time. To resolve this, Carr argues, teachers need to…

The medium is the message, Marshall McLuhan observed many years ago and the "form" of what we do carries "content" as Hayden White has argued. This article reports ways in which three generations of history teachers in one history department have endeavoured to do justice to African historical traditions in their collaborative work together and…

How can we develop students' ability to argue about diversity? Sarah Black explores this question through classroom research that set out to help students think in complex ways about diversity, drawing on Burbules' work on conceptualising difference and diversity. Black's study explores the difficulties that students face when trying to develop…

Katharine Burn has a long-standing interest in history teachers' professional learning--not just the ways in which experienced teachers can support beginners, but how teachers at all stages of their career can be encouraged to go developing their practice. In this article, which draws on a number of small-scale research projects, she illustrates…

Flora Wilson argues here for the importance of maintaining a fascination with history as an academic subject for experienced, practising history teachers. Just as medical professionals keep their knowledge up to date by reading the latest research, so too, Wilson argues, should history teachers remain engaged with current historical scholarship,…

Beth Baker and Steven Mastin make the case for teaching ancient history in the post-14 curriculum. Pointing out the damaging messages that could be conveyed by assuming that ancient history is not worthy of higher-level and demanding study, they also show the opportunities that are missed if pupils do not return to it when they are able to apply…

Robin Whitburn and Sharon Yemoh describe the design of a school-generated GCSE course on the challenges that British people faced in forging a multicultural society in post-imperial Britain. Drawing on their own research into their students' experience, they build a discipline-based case for teaching about socio-political communal struggles…

Weaknesses in pupils' grasp of historical chronology are a commonplace in popular discussion of the state of history education. However, as Blow, Lee and Shemilt argue, although undoubtedly necessary and fundamental, mastery of chronological conventions is not sufficient: the difficulties that pupils experience when learning history are…

Michael Fordham examines the evolution of his own practice as an example of how history teachers draw upon collective, professional knowledge constructed by other history teachers in journals, books, conferences and seminars. Fordham explains how a particular Year 7 enquiry examining historical change from the "fall" of the Roman Empire to the…

Joanne Pearson reflects on her experiences as a history teacher and teacher educator, considering the ways in which she has seen women represented in the history curricula of different schools in England. She makes the case that greater attention needs to be paid by history teachers to the criteria against which they make decisions about the…

History curriculum reform proposals and debates are a persistent feature of the contemporary educational landscape in England and, very probably, a "sign of the times" that can reveal a great deal about contemporary predicaments and concerns. History curriculum controversy is also a global phenomenon and one that can fruitfully--and, perhaps, only…

This article, by Lynda Abbott and Richard Grayson, offers a fascinating example of collaboration between school and university, focused on the development of a community archive. The project--run as an extra-curricular activity--was originally inspired by a concern to preserve the personal stories of those whose lives were affected by the Second…

The idea of using "little stories" to illuminate the "big pictures" of the past was creatively explored in "Teaching History 107," which offered teachers a wealth of detailed vignettes with which to kindle young people's interest and illuminate major historical events. Paul Barrett builds on the ideas explored in that issue in two important ways.…

Struck by what he saw as the complexity, artistry and cognitive achievement of historians' narrative accounts, Robin Kemp decided to explore ways of teaching his pupils to write narrative and to analyse the role of such writing in developing various kinds of historical thinking. Working with Year 8 and Year 10 he designed a research project that…

First order knowledge and understanding, relating to the "stuff" of history, is, of course, absolutely fundamental to the development of children's historical knowledge and understanding. However, as Frances Blow shows, in a contribution to a series of articles exploring second order concepts in history published in Teaching History by Peter Lee…