Elena Stevens is a secondary school teacher and the history lead in her department. Having completed her PhD in the same year that she qualified as a teacher, Elena loves drawing upon her doctoral research and continued love for the subject to shape new schemes of work and inspire students’ own passions for the past. @elena_stevens

ISBN 9781785836305

Published July 2022

www.crownhouse.co.uk

The best history is the kind that illuminates the complexity of the past

History is an exciting, dynamic discipline; new evidence and interpretation can offer up perspectives that shift our understanding, or make us think about events, people, or ideas in new ways. The same can be said of history teaching. If our lessons can expose pupils to new aspects of history – or even shed new light on periods of history with which young people have become familiar by the time they enter our classrooms – then we have gone some way towards exposing the complexity of history.

As a school subject, history has great potential for helping to develop pupils’ identities. It provides young people with opportunities to engage with ideas, values; and practices in a manner that equips them to navigate the challenges of adult life (as many education writers suggest). History offers young people the chance, as Arthur Marwick put it in 1989, to find ‘their bearings’, or to anchor themselves in the present whilst claiming inspiration and affirmation from the past¹. Helping pupils to do this seems to be one of the most important goals of history education.

The events of 2020 and 2021 have underlined the importance of challenging the perceived version of the history of empire, slavery, abolition, and race. The murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota in May 2020 sparked global outrage and inspired a wave of activism: many protestors marched in the name of Black Lives Matter, a movement which – since 2013 – has worked to bring about justice and an end to racism.

In the wake of these activities, schools were urged to rethink the way certain histories were delivered. Schools across the UK have been reforming their

curriculum to reflect the achievements of black and minority ethnic people and address the harmful legacy of colonialism after a groundswell of demand from young people². But there is still a lot to be done.

This is where a new book by Elena Stevens will help. By introducing teachers to characters and stories that will enrich existing topics – particularly those taught at key stages 3, 4 or 5, 40 Ways to Diversify the History Curriculum provides busy history teachers with ready-to-use ideas, strategies and activities for diversifying the curriculum.

An experienced history lead, Elena Stevens argues that if we want to lay claim to a truly diverse curriculum, we need to make room for stories that move beyond the traditional focus on heroes, conquerors, and pioneers, exploring instead the real, lived experiences of a whole range of individuals. These include women, the working classes, Black, Asian, minority ethnic, disabled and LGBTQ+ communities.

Stevens’ book helpfully opens with a discussion of the theoretical/ historiographical developments that lie behind calls to diversify the curriculum – and, to accompany each of the 40 historical case studies, she provides ideas and activities for translating these into lesson plans and enquiries. Furthermore, Elena also guides teachers in shaping new enquiries from scratch.

The book is intended as a contribution to the decolonising project that has swept through history education in the last few years, acting as alternative lenses through which to teach popular topics and episodes of history. Fundamentally, Stevens believes we need to emphasise the value of these

kinds of stories, encouraging pupils to conceive of history in the broadest possible terms. By adopting such an approach, pupils will begin to recognise themselves in the people of the past – and this will prove invaluable in the process of identity construction in the present.

¹ For example, Keith C. Barton and Linda S. Levstik claim that history promotes ‘democratic citizenship’. See Keith C. Barton and Linda S. Levstik, Teaching History for the Common Good (Abingdon: Routledge, 2004).

² Hundreds of schools in England sign up for anti-racist curriculum | Race in education | The Guardian.