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Romans, Tudors, World War 2 in a vacuum, whereas I would much prefer to see themes
offering coherence and continuity up to the present day – for example, looking at who has
come to Britain and why … You should bring everything in the class up to the present and
explain why it is important that we know about the past – that’s school history, which is
different to just history.
The interviewee felt that an Irish dimension related to this general framework of the past as an
intrinsic part of British history. The interviewee’s support for teaching diverse histories was
highlighted in a TES report of a conference address that they gave in 2007:
He warned the Institute of Historical Research Conference that pupils were being
taught English rather than British history and that the stories of immigrant
communities were being neglected … “If somebody is going to be a plumber going
out and working in different communities it might help if they had some
understanding of their history.” (TES, 2007, pp.4-5)
The interviewee believed that teachers could be flexible in the way in which they taught the
National Curriculum but felt that Key Stage 3, GCSE and AS and A2 history needed to be
opened up and include a vocational element to make it relevant to the modern world. The
above quotation was also related to the interviewee’s support for the development of
vocational history within the GCSE pilot, which they hoped to see carried through to changes
at AS/A2 level. This theme had also been addressed in their presentation to Midlands History
Forum in November 2006. The overall impression provided from this interviewee was that
they wanted to promote what they considered to be a relevant history curriculum, which
would meet a wide range of pupil needs, and that their perception of the place of an Irish
dimension must be seen within this wider perspective.
The second interviewee was the QCA adviser for history and they were interviewed in
February 2006. The interviewee had responsibility to the government for history provision
throughout the 3-19 age range. This involved extensive contacts with the history education
community including HMI, examination boards, advisers, subject organisations and teachers.