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Move Me On 163: Ahistorical thinking
Teaching History feature
Jane Whorwood’s concern to encourage students to think for themselves is leading to some very ahistorical thinking.
Jane Whorwood has proved to be a generally confident and positive trainee, largely due to two years’ experience as a cover supervisor before committing to a formal training programme. She has made a...
Move Me On 163: Ahistorical thinking
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Examining the Value of Teaching Sensitive Matters in History
IJHLTR Article
International Journal of Historical Learning, Teaching and Research [IJHLTR], Volume 14, Number 2 – Spring/Summer 2017
ISSN: 14472-9474
Abstract
Driven by the overarching objective of promoting reconciliation through education, this paper explores the impact of history teaching on youth identity and ethnic relations in Sri Lanka. Building on the arguments of scholars the...
Examining the Value of Teaching Sensitive Matters in History
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Driving your development – taster films
Article
These two short films form part of our Driving your development unit, designed as a practical toolkit for new teachers to support you to survive and thrive applying for and into your first history teaching post. The unit aims to cover all of the major aspects of successfully applying for your first history teaching...
Driving your development – taster films
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The Great Debate 2026
The HA's public speaking competition open to school years 10-13
The Historical Association is delighted to announce Rayburn Tours as the official sponsor of the Great Debate 2026. Find out more
What is the Great Debate?
The Great Debate is a public speaking competition where students have 5 minutes to present their speech arguing their answer to the question.
Over the past couple of...
The Great Debate 2026
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Exploring and Teaching Twentieth-Century History
A secondary education publication of the Historical Association
This resource is free to everyone. For access to our library of high-quality secondary history materials along with free or discounted CPD and membership of a thriving community of history teachers and subject leaders, join the Historical Association today
For a long time, history curricula on the 20th century prioritised...
Exploring and Teaching Twentieth-Century History
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Are historical thinking skills important to history teachers?
IJHLTR Article
International Journal of Historical Learning, Teaching and Research IJHLTR, Volume 14, Number 2 – Spring/Summer 2017
ISSN: 14472-9474
Abstract
This article presents some findings of a qualitative interview study with 42 Austrian history teachers, conducted in the framework of an on-going three-year research project (2015–2018) funded by the Austrian Science Fund. The study...
Are historical thinking skills important to history teachers?
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Exploring the relationship between historical significance and historical interpretation
Teaching History article
Jane Card’s previous work on the power of images in conveying particular interpretations and her advice about how to use visual material effectively in classrooms will be familiar to readers of Teaching History. In this article she focuses specifically on the capacity of visual representations to convey a compelling message about the...
Exploring the relationship between historical significance and historical interpretation
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Triumphs Show 148.1: collaborating to commemorate Olaudah Equiano
Teaching History feature
How a drink in the bar at the SHP conference - and discovery of a shared interest in ICT - led to the campaign for a Blue Plaque for an eighteenth-century abolitionist.
What do the 1970 Brazil World Cup-winning team, Charles Darwin and Vanilla Ice all have in common? This...
Triumphs Show 148.1: collaborating to commemorate Olaudah Equiano
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Diversity resources and links for secondary history
Articles, podcasts, films, webinar recordings and links
Categories
Diversity: general | Race and ethnicity | Empire and decolonisation | Transatlantic slavery | Non-European | Migration and immigration | Women's history | Working-class history | LGBTQI+ | Disability & accessibility | Gypsy, Roma & Traveller history | Teaching controversial issues | Inclusion and SEND
Please note that this is a...
Diversity resources and links for secondary history
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Investigating ‘sense of place’ with Year 9 pupils
Teaching History article
Confined to his home during lockdown in 2020, teacher Josh Mellor became eager to explore the history of the physical environment on his doorstep. After reading about different approaches to using environmental history in the classroom, Mellor decided to design an enquiry to explore the changing landscape of the Fens in...
Investigating ‘sense of place’ with Year 9 pupils
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Norman Barons
Classic Pamphlet
What I have done in preparing this lecture on the Norman Barons is to choose three or four important families, with one or two individuals. I shall try to describe their fortunes briefly to you, pick out what appear to be common characteristics and generalize them - not as conclusions,...
Norman Barons
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Upwards till Lepanto
Article
Ottoman society centred on the Sultan. He was lawgiver, religious official, leader in battle-and until the late sixteenth century an active field commander on campaign. The Law of Fratricide of Mehmet (Mohammed) II, 1451-81, urged each new Sultan to kill his brothers in order to produce a capable ruler and...
Upwards till Lepanto
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‘Weaving’ knowledge
Teaching History article
Diane Relf was concerned by what felt like an unbridgeable gulf between Year 7’s vocabulary and comprehension, and her aspirations both for their inclusion in history and their later academic success. As a subject leader without the benefit of any history-specific training at the start of her career, she embarked on...
‘Weaving’ knowledge
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Historical learning using concept cartoons
Teaching History article
Although perhaps unfamiliar to the majority of our readers, concept cartoons are not a new educational tool. Christoph Kühberger here lays out his rationale for using this technique, borrowed from science education, in history teaching. Concept cartoons provide a means for pupils to express such difficult historical concepts as the...
Historical learning using concept cartoons
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Podcast Series: Early Modern Ireland
Multipage Article
This series of podcasts featuring Professor Sean Connolly and Professor David Hayton of Queen's University Belfast looks at Irish History from 1500-1800. Topics covered include Tudor Ireland, the Eleven Years War, Restoration Ireland, the significance of the reigns of James II and William III and politics in Ireland during the...
Podcast Series: Early Modern Ireland
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Film: Gorbachev - Downfall
Film Series: Power and authority in Russia and the USSR
Professor Archie Brown looks at the forces that led to Gorbachev's eventual downfall. He also examines the coup in 1991, the rise of Boris Yeltsin and the subsequent breakup of the Soviet Union.
This film is part of our film series that looks at Russian history through the lens of leadership from Alexander...
Film: Gorbachev - Downfall
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Recorded webinar: History teachers as teachers of reading
Developing confident readers and writers in the history classroom and beyond
Students and teachers can perceive literacy, particularly the challenges of extended reading and writing, to be a barrier to enjoyment of and success in history. Repeated lockdowns over the past two years have, despite teachers’ most creative and dedicated responses to remote learning, made it even harder to help children...
Recorded webinar: History teachers as teachers of reading
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Bringing school into the classroom
Teaching History article
The Secondary Education and Social Change (SESC) research project team at the University of Cambridge collaborated with four secondary school history teachers to produce resource packs for teaching Key Stage 3 pupils about post-war British social history through the history of secondary education.
In this article, Chris Jeppesen explains the...
Bringing school into the classroom
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New Treatments of Familiar Topics
National Curriculum 2016
Comparision of new GCSE Specifications Treatment of Familiar Topics If you, like many other departments are beginning to ask the questions that will determine which of the new history GCSE specifications your department will choose, one consideration may well be looking at the retention of familiar topics that you already...
New Treatments of Familiar Topics
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Triumphs Show 148.2: using pupil dialogue to encourage engagement with sources
Teaching History feature
Using pupil dialogue to encourage sophisticated engagement with source material - even at GCSE!
Frustrated by the mechanistic approach that their pupils were using when working with historical sources, Tim Jenner and Paul Nightingale sought to experiment with a method of teaching sources which eschewed practice source questions in favour...
Triumphs Show 148.2: using pupil dialogue to encourage engagement with sources
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The Wellcome Collection Study Visits
Visits
Wellcome Collection is a free museum and library exploring health and human experience. It is the extraordinary legacy of an extraordinary man: Henry Wellcome.
Drawn from his collection of over one million objects from across the world and through many centuries, this unique space is designed to promote new and creative...
The Wellcome Collection Study Visits
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A knowledge-rich approach to introducing China’s history to Year 9
Teaching History article
Freya George was wondering how best to integrate more Asian histories into her school’s curriculum when a conversation among history teachers on social media led her to Jung Chang’s Wild Swans: three daughters of China. George then planned two enquiries, one introducing twentieth-century China, and one focusing entirely on Chang’s work. George styles...
A knowledge-rich approach to introducing China’s history to Year 9
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Whose past is it anyway? Telling Russian and Soviet history through diverse Jewish voices
Teaching History article
When Alistair Dickins came to teach A-level Russian and Soviet history (1855–1964) he was rather surprised by the very limited references to Jewish history within the exam board specification. His own detailed knowledge in this area (a ‘little side-project’ from his doctorate on the Russian Revolution), led to a revision of the course. This article...
Whose past is it anyway? Telling Russian and Soviet history through diverse Jewish voices
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Film: Gorbachev - Interpretations
Film Series: Power and authority in Russia and the USSR
Mikhail Gorbachev’s leadership and period in office is remembered differently in different parts of the world. Professor Archie Brown discusses the different interpretations the have developed in the West and in Russia to Gorbachev and his legacy. He describes the impact and development of Post-Soviet Russia and how this has influenced...
Film: Gorbachev - Interpretations
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Film: Gorbachev - Foreign Relations
Film Series: Power and authority in Russia and the USSR
Professor Archie Brown discusses how Gorbachev fundamentally reformed Soviet foreign policy, redefined relations with the West, fostered closer personal relationships with former adversaries and how he transformed the Cold War world.
He examines Gorbachev's policy towards Eastern Europe and the fall of the Iron Curtain, and looks at how his new foreign...
Film: Gorbachev - Foreign Relations
