How Victorian were the Victorians?

Developing Year 8 students' conceptual thinking about diversity in Victorian society

Elizabeth Carr writes here about a new scheme of work she developed to teach students about diversity in Victorian society. When dealing with a concept such as diversity, it can be easy for students to slip into stereotypes based on simplistic understandings of the experiences of people at the time. To resolve this, Carr argues, teachers need to ensure that students have access to a rich collection of real stories which convincingly reveal the complexity of experience. Complex, real stories, such as those used in this article, are needed if students are to be able to construct historical generalisations in a meaningful way...