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

Abstract

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 online 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. Whilst 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.

Keywords:

• History education
• curriculum
• history curriculum
• secondary school curriculum

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Wilschut does actually support the teaching of a canon, but one derived from ‘educational’ principles that reflect the distinctive contribution of history to young people’s understanding of the past rather than ‘cultural’ principles.