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On-demand webinar: Teaching disciplinary knowledge directly: sources
Webinar series: Direct history teaching
Webinar series: Direct history teaching
Session 5: Teaching disciplinary knowledge directly: sources
In this fifth session, Jacob and Mike will argue that 'source work' often doesn’t work. They will suggest that common classroom approaches to sources are often ineffective and inaccessible. Instead, they will share examples of lessons that teach pupils very...
On-demand webinar: Teaching disciplinary knowledge directly: sources
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Helping Year 8 to understand historians’ narrative decision-making
Teaching History article
While previous work on historical interpretations has focused students’ attention on the particular questions that historians have been asking or the context in which they have been posing those questions, less attention has been paid to the process of historical narration itself – the decisions that are made in telling...
Helping Year 8 to understand historians’ narrative decision-making
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Making learning drive assessment: Joan of Arc - saint, witch or warrior?
Teaching History article
Andrew Wrenn describes his work with Barry Williams and the teachers of the history department at Ailwyn School (11-14 comprehensive), Ramsey in Cambridgeshire. Devoting equal attention to the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of history assessment, he shows how this group of teachers developed a fresh approach to assessment out of...
Making learning drive assessment: Joan of Arc - saint, witch or warrior?
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Defying the ‘constrictive grip of typologies’
Journal article
History teachers have frequently made recourse to character cards as a device to help young people, each assigned specific roles, to understand how different kinds of people responded in different ways to particular situations in the past.
Edward FitzGerald builds on this tradition, demonstrating the value of using rich historical...
Defying the ‘constrictive grip of typologies’
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Move Me On 167: Frames of reference
Teaching History feature
This feature is designed to build critical, informed debate about the character of teacher training, teacher education and professional development.
This issue’s problem: Eleanor Franks doesn’t really understand her students’ frames of reference and the difficulties that many of them have in making sense of the particular historical phenomena she is teaching them about.
Eleanor Franks,...
Move Me On 167: Frames of reference
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Secondary Committee biographies
Information
Find out more about the HA's committees here
Sally Burnham (committee chair)
Sally is a history teacher in a school in Lincolnshire and also works one day a week at the University of Nottingham on the History PGCE. Sally has been a Head of Department and is now a Lead...
Secondary Committee biographies
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HA Secondary History Survey 2015
Survey Report
*Full Survey Report attached below
1.1 Data on which this report is based
This survey was conducted during the summer term 2015. Responses were received from 455 history teachers working in a wide range of different contexts, including sixth form and tertiary colleges. The rapid expansion of the academies programme...
HA Secondary History Survey 2015
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A Local History Toolkit
Article
IntroductionIn this short paper you will discover some of the tools for ‘doing' local history. They are based on where I live: you can get similar types of sources from where you live, work or teach. Your main source will be a local library or record office, but there is...
A Local History Toolkit
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Film Series: Active Learning & History
Multipage Article
Active learning strategies are engaging but, far more importantly, they make history learning memorable, they encourage resilience and independence, and they are an excellent way to make complex history accessible for all. When used with clear purpose and with knowledge of specific students' needs, they are a tried and tested...
Film Series: Active Learning & History
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‘If you had told me before that these students were Russians, I would not have believed it’
Teaching History article
Bjorn Wansink and his co-authors have aligned their teaching of a recent and controversial historical issue – the Cold War – in the light of a contemporary incident.
This article demonstrates a means of ensuring that students understand that different cultures’ views of their shared past are nuanced, rather than monolithic – a different concept in philosophy as well as in...
‘If you had told me before that these students were Russians, I would not have believed it’
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Nurturing aspirations for Oxbridge
Teaching History article
An exploration of the impact of university preparation classes on sixth-form historians
Frustrated by the low numbers of students from her comprehensive state school who expressed any interest in applying to Oxford or Cambridge to study history, Lucy Hemsley set out to explore ways in which she might both inspire...
Nurturing aspirations for Oxbridge
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Polychronicon 135: Post-modern Holocaust Historiography
Teaching History feature
The field of Holocaust studies has been hit by an intellectual earthquake whose precise magnitude and long-term consequences cannot be ascertained at this stage. In 2007 Saul Friedländer published The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews 1939-1945. The book has been rightly celebrated as the first victim-centred synthetic history...
Polychronicon 135: Post-modern Holocaust Historiography
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Podcast Series: Confronting Controversial History
Podcast Series
Controversial History formed the focus of the Historical Association’s report, Teaching Emotive and Controversial History 3-19 (TEACH). Published in 2007, it offered teachers invaluable guidance for teaching historical topics that can stir emotion and controversy. However, the authors noted how the nature of the sensitivity can be affected by ‘time, geography and...
Podcast Series: Confronting Controversial History
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How We Used to Sleep
School Resources
Want to take a fresh look at medicine through time with your students?
If so, you might be interested in teaching them about sleep’s history in the Renaissance. By focusing on sleep – something that we all do and have an opinion on – students can be introduced to changing...
How We Used to Sleep
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11 Ways to Use Multimedia Videos in History Lessons
Article
Dan Moorhouse provides:
11 ways to use multimedia videos in lessons:
1) To develop an understanding of the ways in which different interpretations of events are formed. For example, pupils may study Cromwell and his times and may then be asked to consider how and for what purpose a particular interpretation...
11 Ways to Use Multimedia Videos in History Lessons
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Teacher Fellowship Programme: Local history
Teacher Fellowship Programme 2021–22
At the heart of this Teacher Fellowship programme in partnership with the British Association for Local History was the concept of integrating local history into the classroom through the stories of the people and places which make the history of your school's community exciting and unique. Through the lens of local history...
Teacher Fellowship Programme: Local history
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Fundamental British Values and history teaching
Article
In this article, Michael Maddison provides an overview of what schools must do in relation to promoting British values, as well as preventing extremism and radicalisation, and why it is so important that opportunities are taken in history to deal with these two pressing issues. It is an updated version...
Fundamental British Values and history teaching
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Miss, now I can see why that was so important: using ICT to enrich overview at GCSE
Teaching History article
Reflection and evaluation are key tools in the box of the successful history teacher. However, a focus on resources or exam results is futile unless a desire to develop pupils’ historical understanding is at the heart of the evaluation process. Maria Osowiecki’s department faced two problems: how to develop their...
Miss, now I can see why that was so important: using ICT to enrich overview at GCSE
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Guidance for would-be history teacher trainees
An interview with history NQTs
Are you considering history teaching as a career option? Knowing where to start, what to expect from teaching and whether teacher training is right for you can feel like a leap into the unknown. We spoke to three recently qualified teachers, Ben Kirby, Liam Frondigoun and Alex Schmidt, all based...
Guidance for would-be history teacher trainees
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My Favourite History Place - Magdeburg
Historian feature
Magdeburg (‘Magdeburg überascht') is situated on the banks of the River Elbe in the state of Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany. First mentioned by Charlemagne in 805, Magdeburgtoday attracts much attention by being a major historic venue on the Straße der Romanik or Romanesque Route that has opened up a large number of...
My Favourite History Place - Magdeburg
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Secondary History: A Masterclass for Senior Leaders
Multipage Article
As a senior leader, there may be barriers to line managing a subject as a non-specialist. This short course, designed to fit around a busy workload, aims to help line managers of history departments to more effectively understand the subject, improving their ability to support history teams.
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Secondary History: A Masterclass for Senior Leaders
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HA Secondary History Survey 2013
HA Survey
For the last four years the HA sends to all schools and colleges teaching students in the 11-18 age range a survey. The survey was sent out during the second half of the spring term 2013. Responses were received from 557 history teachers working in different contexts including middle schools...
HA Secondary History Survey 2013
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What sort of history should school history be? Debate Podcast
Debate Podcast
On July 18 2011 the Historical Association hosted a public debate chaired by Professor Simon Schama at the Institute of Education, Bedford Way, London.
With the history curriculum being the focus of intense interest the following series of podcasts from the debate examine what that curriculum might look like. Joining Simon Schama was five...
What sort of history should school history be? Debate Podcast
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Sense, relationship and power: uncommon views of place
Teaching History article
Liz Taylor invites history teachers to consider how diverse and uncommon the ‘common’ person’s experience of place might be. She draws upon cultural geography to show how words like ‘place’, ‘space’ and ‘landscape’ can be unpacked and questioned and so become better tools for pupils’ critical thinking in both geography...
Sense, relationship and power: uncommon views of place
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History in Schools: What is the Future?
History Debate Podcast
The Future of history in our schools
Whether you have children or not, whether you're a teacher or not, if you have a love of History this debate matters to you.
History in Schools: What is the Future?
