Teaching History 127 June 2007 The Historical Association
40
Is it the Tuarts and
then the Studors or
the other way round?
The importance of developing a
usable big picture of the past
What should pupils know and
understand as a result of their
historical...
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Teaching History 127 June 2007 The Historical Association
40
Is it the Tuarts and
then the Studors or
the other way round?
The importance of developing a
usable big picture of the past
What should pupils know and
understand as a result of their
historical studies? This question is
much in the news currently and
too often quickly posed and glibly
answered.
In this article, Jonathan
Howson poses this problem in the
light of an ongoing research tradition
that has sought complex answers to
these and other pressing questions
and suggests an answer based on that
work and on data emerging from the
Usable Historical Pasts research project
at the University of London’s Institute
of Education.
Howson argues that
history does indeed have a problem,
as many commentators suggest, but
that appreciating the dimensions of
the problem and addressing it entails
a rethinking of the outcomes of
history education.
Evidence of a problem
On 26 December 2006 the Daily Mail published an article entitled
‘
Less
