Teaching the transatlantic slave trade and its abolition in British history is now a compulsory component of the revised KS3 History curriculum.

The Understanding Slavery Initiative (USI) is a national education project set up in 2003. The initiative has been developed in partnership with the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, National Museums Liverpool, British Empire and Commonwealth Museum, Bristol City Museums, Galleries and Archives, and Hull Museums and Art Gallery. The project supports the effective study of the history and legacies of the transatlantic slave trade using museum collections and archives.

The USI partnership works in consultation with a range of educators and policy makers, drawing on cultural and historical expertise, to develop a range of resources to support teaching and learning around the transatlantic slave trade. This project has been jointly funded by the DCMS and DCSF as part of the Strategic Commissioning National/Regional Museum Partnership Programme. Four key resources are now available, free of charge, for educators to use.

(Teacher's Site)

(Student's Site)

Citizen Resource Teachers Pack

Unlocking Perceptions: Understanding Slavery's approach to the history and legacies of the transatlantic slave trade

These resources are for both teachers and students to use and contain a visually rich collection of artefacts and biographies.

To date over 1,500 teaching resources have been requested and dispatched. Initial feedback from teachers has been overwhelmingly positive. To request a Citizen Resource pack please email: USIcitizenresource@nmm.ac.uk.

During the next year the USI partnership will use these resources as a basis for a national training programme to support teachers and educators in using museums collections to deliver this revised curriculum.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Understanding Slavery Initiative (USI)

The Understanding Slavery Initiative is a national education project, which began in April 2003 with funding from the Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) as part of the Strategic Commissioning National/Regional Museum Partnerships Programme.

Understanding Slavery has been developed with a number of key objectives:

To encourage teachers, educators and young people to fully examine the history and legacies of the transatlantic slave trade through the museums' collections and schemes of work in the National Curriculum, particularly History and Citizenship at Key Stage 3

To develop resources for teachers and pupils which focus on the British, West African and Caribbean elements of the history

To offer training and development opportunities for teachers and museum educators to support their development of effective teaching methodologies for this project

To develop and share best practice teaching models which effectively address the issues and sensitivities inherent in this history, particularly when working with the related museum collections

USI Resources

A website for teachers and educators offering visual material, background information and activities to teach young people about transatlantic slavery, bringing together items from the partner museums' collections as well as new and revised lesson plans and activities for use in both formal and informal learning contexts.

A website for KS3 students organised into four themes Activism, Heritage, Identity and Routes offering schools a rich bank of museum artefacts and archival material for research and study on-line and off-line.

The Citizen Resource
A printed pack for teachers with corresponding content from the Citizen website, and including lesson plans and activities for ongoing study programmes.

Unlocking Perceptions: Understanding Slavery's approach to the history and legacies of the transatlantic slave trade
The production of a handbook which brings together guidelines for developing museum learning resources and programmes of study for this subject. This new publication is free and has been produced for dissemination across the museums and learning sectors.

Issued August 2008 by the National Maritime Museum Press Office.
For further information or images, please contact:

Sheryl Twigg or Nigel Rubenstein
National Maritime Museum Press Office
Tel: 020 8312 6790/6732
Email: press@nmm.ac.uk