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History Education: Northern Ireland
Dr Clare McAuley (Ulster University)
Opportunities and challenges in History education
The Northern Ireland Curriculum (NIC), introduced in 2007, offers exciting opportunities for the teaching and learning of History at Key Stage 3. The skills-based, content-flexible curriculum framed by minimum statements of entitlement and cross-curricular themes seeks to ensure that a young person’s history education is enquiry-based, relevant and connects the past with the present. The NIC, as an educational response to societal division, positions the History classroom as a site for transformative social change by helping to prepare young people as empowered and informed ‘contributors to society’ through opportunities to explore the causes and consequences of division, challenge their cultural and political values and the capacity to think critically.
As is often the case, the learning and teaching in classrooms can fall short of curriculum policy intentions - and Northern Ireland is no exception where, it is fair to say, the desired impact in History education is yet to be fully realised. Below are some of the issues, debates and challenges facing History education in Northern Ireland:
· A re-assessment of History education’s responsibilities as a contributor to the wider NIC framework and for a 21st century world, particularly in relation to the teaching of Citizenship education;
· Limited curriculum connectivity and collaborative planning/practice remains commonplace across NI schools;
· The continuing dominance of content-heavy GCSE and GCE History specifications despite reforms;
· A mis-match between the NIC requirements and external assessments in History;
· The influence of examinations in driving (and distorting) Key Stage 3 History provision resulting in the privileging of disciplinary and cognitive thinking at the expense of engaging the social and emotional dimensions of learning;
· A lack of History specific continuing professional learning opportunities related to developing pedagogy and practice;
· The fitness for purpose and efficacy of the GCSE ‘Troubles’ module to inform and engage young people in issues associated with the legacy of the conflict; and
· The decline of rigorous history teaching at primary level.
Despite these issues, History remains a popular subject in Northern Ireland as reflected in the relatively stable numbers of students continuing to study it at GCSE and GCE level. In addition, the PGCE History education course (of which there is only one provider) remains heavily oversubscribed. Since 2016, the History Teachers’ Association Northern Ireland (HTANI) has provided teachers with a welcome space to share practice and expertise and a voice to shape future provision and policy – including for example, contributing to forthcoming revisions of examination specifications and engaging with the Independent Review of Northern Ireland education system. HTEN is a welcome extension of this community of practice providing the forum to explore future directions and possibilities for History education with colleagues across the United Kingdom and further afield.
06.10.22
UCL Centre for Holocaust Education:
Our ITE course and our research informed KS3 textbook
Helen McCord (University College London- CUL)
At the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education we offer fully funded, research informed courses for ITE students in England. We have well established relationships with many ITE providers, and we are keen to provide support for tutors and their students, in an ongoing relationship that promotes best practice in Holocaust Education.
Our core ITE session is entitled ‘Planning for teaching and learning about the Holocaust: challenges and opportunities’ It aims:
- To address common misconceptions and challenges identified by our research, equipping ITE students to be able to challenge misconceptions where they arise, and to effectively address common misunderstandings.
- To provide foundational subject knowledge for ITE students who may be teaching about the Holocaust in their training year and ECT years.
- To model and explore effective pedagogical approaches to teaching and learning about the Holocaust.
- To explore what planning for progress looks like when teaching about the Holocaust.
- To establish an ongoing CPD relationship with ITE students with clearly identified opportunities for their own progression route through our offers.
And it comprises of the following:
Exploring the research: Exploring the Centre’s latest research including results of our 2019/20 survey, this session introduces your students to prevalent misconceptions and misunderstandings about the Holocaust. We will explore how we might challenge these and prevent these from forming through our planning and teaching. We will identify and address common concerns that students have when planning to teach this topic.
Authentic Encounters: ‘How might you start a Scheme of Learning about the Holocaust? Modelling a pedagogical approach.’ This session models a way in which your students may begin a Scheme of Learning and provides space to explore and reflect upon pedagogical approaches to teaching about the Holocaust.
The Centre’s textbook and the planning process: challenges and opportunities: This session explores the Centre’s textbook as a resource, examining its approach to material selection and content sequencing to assist with planning for progression when teaching and learning about the Holocaust.
Our research informed KS3 textbook ‘Understanding the Holocaust: How and why did it happen?’ was published in 2020. To date, over 55,000 copies have been made freely available to teachers across over 1,800 secondary schools. As a highly valued resource amongst teachers the textbook now forms part of our ITE offer. We unpack the resource and explore with ITE students what we can learn about content selection, pedagogical approaches, sequencing, assessment and how we address common misconceptions and misunderstandings. At the point of booking an ITE course with us, ITE tutors can order their own free class set for use with their students. Following the completion of the ITE session, students can secure their own free class set to take with them as they begin their journey as ECTs.
If you would like to find out more, or to book an ITE session with us please visit our website or email helen.mccord@ucl.ac.uk .
Primary HTEN
Clare Stow (Canterbury Christ Church University)
The primary HTEN group is made up of academics and experts who work with a range of students within ITE settings and SCITTs. Our intention is to develop a community of practice which enables discussion and support which will lead to the sharing of best practice in terms of the development of primary history teachers.
We meet regularly and benefit from opportunities to share ideas, discuss current issues within the world of ITE, quality assure each other’s planning, methods of observation and ways to support mentoring.
Recent discussions have led to members working within triads to develop curriculum overviews, within the time constraints of ITE courses. Such discussions and opportunities are extremely valuable and led to further thinking around planning sessions with ITE students which focus on the core aspects of history teaching, such as enquiry, sharing key readings and related resources to develop our own and our students’ thinking.
Currently many thoughts are related to ways to support mentoring within our partner schools and developing observation tools to use with both students and mentors within the classroom which can be used to support subject-specific practice and target setting. The sharing of ideas and ways of working in this context are invaluable.
We are always keen to welcome new members and support those who are new to working within ITE.
EuroClio
EuroClio is an organisation that aims to inspire and support educators to engage their students in innovative and responsible history and citizenship education. Based in The Hague, The Netherlands, it has a small secretariat, project teams, interns and a team of professional volunteers. It has existed for over 25 years. Originally started under the umbrella of The Council of Europe, it is now an NGO co-funded by the European Union. It was created in the period when countries of the former Soviet sphere of influence in Europe were seeking membership of the EU and has transnational approaches and multiperspectivity at the core of its work. Past projects have included work in the post-conflict western Balkans region, strategies to facilitate debate and dialogue in the history classroom, and historical perspectives on the post World War Two European project.
EuroClio has an active network of history teachers and history teacher educators. It has an online web resource for students and teachers called 'Historiana' - www.historiana.eu - and a full website at www.euroclio.eu.
EuroClio's work can be summarised as:
- conducting research to assess the needs of those teaching and learning history, heritage and citizenship, using surveys, focus-groups and interviews. The research findings drive the work of EuroClio and are used as evidence for advocacy and fundraising.
- advocating and interceding for high-quality history, heritage and citizenship education on both the European and international levels.
- supporting the collaborative design of directly applicable educational resources that promote active learning and historical thinking. The development, piloting and peer-review is typically done by people with different cultural and professional backgrounds to build on different experiences.
- organising professional development courses, active workshops, on-site learning and opportunities for networking. The Annual Conference is the most international training course for history educators, with usually more than 35 different countries being represented.
- informing the network about relevant projects, resources, research, and events related to history, heritage and citizenship education in Europe.
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