Traces of the past in Flanders

As a busy teacher of history and part-time doctoral student exploring history, heritage and identity, Joris thought a lot about heritage, students’ understanding of heritage and how such ideas could best be brought into the history classroom. Meanwhile, he discovered that the buildings next to his school were about to be torn down. Originally housing a textile mill, these buildings had more recently been used for sport, shopping and even weddings, providing the ideal hyperlocal site for an enquiry on heritage. This article reveals the construction of a student-led enquiry to explore the history, memory and meaning of the site. Local archives and oral histories provided rich detail for a public exhibition of findings. The context, however, of conflicting developments in history education in Flanders, make interesting reading for a wide range of readers at a time of curriculum review in England...