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teachers in schools. They noted common excuses such as time and also the argument that
some teachers gave, that English children should be taught about English history, given that
the curriculum in other parts of Britain allowed for their national identities to be taught.
They countered the argument by noting that the National Curriculum required British history
to be taught and emphasised that ‘England needs to know as Wales, Ireland and Scotland will
never forget, that they are part of Britain’. A natural progression from this was the
interviewee’s argument that Irish history needed to be taught outside Roman Catholic schools,
its natural constituency, in the same way that black and women’s history needed to be taught
outside black and girls’ schools, as these dimensions were universally relevant. These views
have been partly influenced by the interviewee’s Welsh identity. However, they also indicated
a strongly established awareness of anti-racist issues within the history curriculum.
The interviewee suggested a number of factors affecting the extent that they were able to
develop issues related to diversity, including an Irish dimension, with their students. They had
been able to support diversity issues in general through their teaching, assignments and local
contacts with organisations such as TIDE, which emphasised an equal opportunities
dimension within the curriculum. However, the interviewee felt that the preoccupation of
student teachers and mentors with basic issues such as classroom management, the
overwhelming influence of mentors over what was actually taught in schools limited the
extent to which they influenced students’ practice during the course. Although they had made
contact with the Ireland in Schools project they had not really found opportunities to promote
an Irish dimension within general sessions. Nevertheless, they identified two positive ways in
which students and former students explored diversity issues. Firstly, for a number of years
PGCE students had undertaken whole group activities with some partnership schools where