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Abstract
This article explores the continued importance of teaching a diverse curriculum at a time when issues of racial and ethnic equality and diversity have been increasingly sidelined in the political discussion around ‘British’ values and identities, and how these should be taught in schools. The 2014 History National curriculum, in particular, provoked widespread controversy around what British history is, who gets included in this story and how best to engage young people in increasingly diverse classrooms with the subject. The new curriculum provides both opportunities for, and constraints on, addressing issues of racial and ethnic equality and diversity, but how these are put into practice in an increasingly fragmented school system remains less clear. Drawing on the findings of two research projects in schools across England and Wales, this article examines the challenges and opportunities facing teachers and young people in the classroom in the teaching and learning of diverse British histories. We argue that it is not only the content of what children and young people are taught in schools that is at issue, but how teachers are supported to teach diverse curricula effectively and confidently.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the AHRC for their support of this work, and Joya Chatterji for her ongoing guidance and insights. We are grateful to past and present colleagues at Runnymede – especially, Rob Berkeley and Vastiana Belfon – and the members of our advisory groups for their generosity. Most of all we pass our thanks to the schools, teachers and, especially, young people who have taken part in these projects.
Notes
1. Department for Education, http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance/secondary_13/s4.html, accessed 21/7/2015.
2. 78.5% Chinese and 74.4% Indian students achieve five or more GCSEs compared to 58% nationally; 59.7% Bangladeshi and 57.9% Black African students; 52.6% of Pakistani and 48.6% of black Caribbean heritage pupils.
4. History for all: How Diverse and Inclusive will the New History Curriculum Be? Runnymede Expert Roundtable, Kings College, 3rd November 2014.
5. In December 2014, the OCR (Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations Board) announced the launch of a new GCSE History module on migration to Britain to be available to students from 2016. Times Educational Supplement https://news.tes.co.uk/b/news/2014/12/01/history-of-immigration-to-be-included-in-new-gcses.aspx. The AQA has also established a new option on ‘Britain: Migration, empires and the people: c790 to the present day’ as part of their new specification which comes on stream in 2016.
6. See ‘Our Migration Story: Making Britain’ website which includes resources tracing Britain’s history of migration since AD43 (www.ourmigrationstory.org.uk).
7. Less than a third of students from minority ethnic backgrounds take history at GCSE level, whilst attainment for Black children in GCSE history is low in comparison to other ethnic groups – Chris Skidmore (2010) Parliamentary question on GCSE History entries and attainment http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm110719/text/110719w0005.htm
8. Banglastories: Telling Community Histories about Migration and Belonging (AHRC: AH/J002879/1); History Lessons: Teaching Community, Heritage and Diversity in the National History Curriculum (AHRC: AH/L009420/1.
9. The Bengal Diaspora: Bengali Muslim Settlers in South Asia and Britain (AHRC: AH/E501540/1).
11. Indeed, only 1.9% of historical and philosophical studies students were Black and 2.5% British Asian; Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) Student Introduction 2012/13 https://www.hesa.ac.uk/stats
12. Mandler, P (2014) ‘How do we make academic research on diverse histories accessible to all?’, presentation to History for All: How Diverse and Broad will the new Curriculum prove to be?
13. As above.