Controversial issues
The legacy of the past and its impact on the present, as well as the process of interpretation by which accounts of the past are constructed, mean that many topics studied in history may carry an emotional charge. Certain events or developments may have a particular relevance – or resonance – for some young people and their communities, but carry different overtones (or none at all) for others. This section contains advice and resources for teachers who are tackling potentially sensitive topics that may generate emotionally charged responses and explores the issues that may arise as topics studied in the classroom intersect with personal, family and community histories. The materials here will help teachers to reflect carefully on the appropriateness of their objectives and to develop effective teaching strategies for promoting sensitive and productive kinds of discussion, especially when both the past and its implications for the present are disputed. They highlight the risks involved and the ways in which they can be mitigated, and include guidance and advice related to the Prevent Strategy.
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Move Me On 153: Teaching about genocide
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Moving Year 9 towards more complex causal explanations of Holocaust perpetration
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Navigating the ‘imperial history wars’
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New, Novice or Nervous? 153: Good Enquiry Questions
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New, Novice or Nervous? 166: Controversial issues
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Nutshell 127
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Polychronicon 153: Re-interpreting Liberation: the end of the Holocaust?
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Putting Catlin in his place?
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Teaching about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and events happening there
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Teaching the very recent past
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Telling difficult stories about the creation of Bangladesh
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The History of Afro-Brazilian People
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The T.E.A.C.H. Project
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The T.E.A.C.H. Report
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Transatlantic slavery – shaping the question, lengthening the narrative, broadening the meaning
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Unravelling the complexity of the causes of British abolition with Year 8
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Voices from Rwanda: when seeing is better than hearing
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What Have Historians Been Arguing About... gender and sexuality
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What Have Historians Been Arguing About... migration and empire
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What have historians been arguing about... decolonisation and the British Empire?
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