6.3 Debates about school history

Rob Philips has argued that it is only by analysing the debates on what should be taught in schools that we can understand what the subject is and how it is best taught. (Phillips, 2002:15) Phillips himself wrote a seminal analysis of the forces that shaped the National Curriculum (1998). There are also useful summaries of these debates in Arthur and Hunt (2001: 21-24); Husbands, Kitson and Pendry, (2003: 7-20), and Phillips, (2002: 15-23). Many of the debates about school history, such as what content should be taught, whether there is too great an emphasis on skills, whether history teaching should be used to shape national identity, still rumble on in the Press. Trainees might be encouraged to collect examples and to evaluate them.

School history has also been shaped by thinking and research at different levels and in very different arenas These include:

• Historical research into both the past and the nature of the subject
• Research into how pupils learn history (see unit 7)
• Research into the purposes of history teaching
• Research into teachers’ thinking about the subject and how they plan and teach.
• Definitions of what should be taught in statutory documents
• Curriculum thinking in textbooks, schemes of work and in articles in ‘Teaching History’
• Parents’ and pupils’ views about what young people should be taught

Exploring dimensions of these debates can help trainees to develop their own well grounded philosophies and activity 6.3.1 looks at some of the debates on progression and assessment and considers how and when research findings could be built into the programme.

Activity 6.3.1 How can critiques of the History Order be used in the PGCE programme?