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note that, despite their alleged support for ant-racist approaches in history teaching, work
developed on Ireland was at the expense of black history.
The second teacher interviewee had only taught for two years and had recently become Head
of History. They said that their school was located in a deprived area and served a white
population, of which a few pupils came from Irish backgrounds. The interviewee was
interested in Irish history and had undertaken it within their degree. They also felt that it
contributed to understanding civil rights issues and had relevance to what pupils could see in
the news. The interviewee said that Irish history only had some importance in their overall
planning at Key Stage 3. It did not form part of Key Stage 4 where they taught the Modern
World Syllabus. At Key Stage 3 an Irish dimension was included within their work on 16th
and 17 th century Britain. They particularly focused on the Battle of the Boyne and used it to
explore events up to the present day including the Good Friday Agreement. They made use of
some textbooks but relied mainly on their own resources to support teaching about Ireland.
When asked about the balance between skills and content they said that content was quite
important, but they emphasised the importance of thinking skills rather than historical skills
which presumably reflected the nature of their involvement with the Foundation Stage
Consultant’s local network. When asked about other dimensions the interviewee indicated
that English history was important. Scottish history only featured when they taught about the
16 th century and Welsh history did not feature in their course. They considered that black,
multicultural and anti-racist history formed quite an important part of their work with year 8
pupils:
We do a very big study on riots in America, slavery and how Europe got involved and
a bit further on the civil rights and Martin Luther King. That is definitely anti-racist
history; they get black, multicultural and anti-racist history.