Teaching History

Recent controversy over the teaching of history has focused first of all on how history itself can be defined. This reader is designed to help teachers to reflect upon the ideas and issues which will inform their answer to this question. After tracing the development of school history up to and including the National Curriculum, it considers some of the main issues involved in teaching history today: the definition of British history in a multicultural society, gender and history, the place of history within the humanities curriculum and the assessment of progress and attainment in the learning of history. The final section looks at the practicalities of teaching secondary history in the classroom and in the field.