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We can draw out influences of the world, such as the First World War and the role that the
Empire played in that, and that brings in your black history and anti-racist history … I was
thinking about anti-racist history, particularly, certainly through the treatment of Jews and we
really do make a big thing of it with year 7 with the treatment of the Jews in Medieval
England and we trace it in year 9 and again in year 11 and then we do make links with the
Stephen Lawrence Enquiry and try and introduce some current affairs when we can.
The interviewee felt that there was a good case for building more black history into their
curriculum in future as a means of motivating growing numbers of African-Caribbean girls in
the school. The overall impression given from this interviewee is that they considered that
their approach towards history teaching was enhanced through involvement with TIDE. Their
history curriculum, including their treatment of Ireland, reflects sympathies with both
development education issues and looking at different interpretations of the past, although in
some respects it was traditional in approach. It is not really possible to state that this
involvement directly affected their treatment of an Irish dimension but certainly there are
similar dispositions evident in their work in school and their involvement with TIDE.
The third interviewee was a history teacher and an Advanced Skills Teacher for Citizenship.
The interview took place in September 2005. The interviewee taught in a multicultural school,
which included pupils from both middle class and socially deprived backgrounds. By coincidence
the Head of History was the fourth interviewee within the pilot study in Chapter 4.
The interviewee initially became involved with the Water for a City Project (TIDE, 1999)
before supporting the Let’s Talk and Derry/Londonderry (TIDE, 2001) projects. Like the
other interviewees involved with the Let’s Talk project they commented on the central role
which sixth form pupils played in the project. However, they also stressed the significance of
the project in challenging the sixth formers’ pre-conceptions:
Lots of kids in Ireland said, This is the first time I have seen different types of people
from me [a reference to the multicultural intake of the group from Birmingham] in the