What is HTEN?

HTEN is a professional association established to promote the development of history teacher education, although most of its members are teacher educators based in the UK it has members and supporters across Europe and beyond. HTEN represents those who work with and have responsibility for the professional education, development and training of beginning and serving history teachers.

We are deeply saddened by the recent death of Helen Snelson. Helen was inimitable.  A brilliant and inspirational history educator and teacher educator.  She believed in the power of history education for widening horizons, developing a deep understanding of humanity and our relationships with each other and our world, and for bringing personal joy and fulfilment.  She oozed a love for the discipline, displaying a wide-ranging subject knowledge that would have been quite intimidating, if not for her humility and great kindness. 

Helen was also a remarkably kind and supportive colleague.  A razor-sharp intellect, she was also incredibly empathetic, kind, full of wisdom and, importantly, humour.  She was generous in her time and attention, championing others whenever she could, always focused on how our community could be enriched by bringing others into the fold.  Her capacious energy meant that she was both prolific in her output and the lynchpin of history education networks across both the UK and Europe through her dedication to the HA and collaborating with and promoting the work Euroclio. 

Her vision and ambition for history education as an inclusive and collaborative broad church, focused on enhancing its efficacy and future development, led her to take an instrumental role in the revival of HTEN in 2021; she identified a need for this network of History Teacher Educators to be re-established, supported by the Historical Association.  Helen was a dedicated member of the HTEN general committee and was a vital part of the HTEN in-person conference planning team.  Her role in making that event happen – from her willingness to roll up her sleeves to get stuck into hidden, unglamorous jobs, to wisely chairing the roundtable discussion – sums up everything you needed to know about Helen’s character.  Helen had no interest in taking credit and was simply delighted to see the work she cared about getting done.

HTEN will miss Helen greatly.  For so many of us she was not just a colleague, she was also a friend.  We will miss her wisdom, her constant reminders that we are better together, her incredible capacity to just get things done, and her sense of fun.  We were privileged to have her. She was the very best of us and the inspiration and wisdom she gave so generously will guide us in all our future work. Thank you Helen.