Embedding local history into the curriculum – It needn’t be a battle

The following is the handout that accompanied my Presentation at the 2018 Schools History Project Conference, I appreciate that many aspects will not make sense unless you were at the presentation, hence please contact me if you have any questions, the aim for posting this is to provide ideas and maybe inspiration.

The aim of this workshop was to demonstrate how local history studies can enrich the History curriculum in all the Key Stages, and more importantly enhance the skills and knowledge of GCSE students, by becoming a synergetic part of the History curriculum. Rather than viewing the local study as an add-on, it took an holistic approach which embeds it in the syllabus. Drawing on Michael Rileys work, it showed how Local History can be subtly incorporated into the curriculum. Spanning all key stages, examples, from battles to memorials to buildings are provided.

“Recently, the incorporation of local history into the curriculum has been given a new impetus, with site analysis now included in GCSE examination courses.” TH168

As teachers of History we are well aware that teaching History through a local study is an effective means of engaging the interest and imagination of students and the wider community.

In my experience, the way local History is taught in many schools is quite different to the teaching of other History topics; for many it is usually crammed in at the end of the course, a pure skills exercise, or a pet project designed to promoted History as a GCSE option. I would argue, if we wish for local history to be taught effectively, it needs to be taught implicitly, as a synergetic part of History teaching; to be embedded within the curriculum.

What is local history?

The term local derives from ‘Locus’, the Latin word for a place, it simply means having to do with a place. Local history in one sense is centred on the places where things happened in the past. Carol Kammen gives us a good definition:

I see local History as the study of past events, or of people or groups, in a given geographical area – a study based on a wide variety of documentary evidence and placed in a comparative context that should be both regional and national. Such study ought to be accomplished by a historian using methods appropriate to the topic under consideration while following general rules of historical inquiry: open-mindedness, honesty, accountability, and accuracy.’ in On Doing Local History (2003)

It can be argued that, all history is local history, because everything that was done in the past was done in some place or other.

Many see local history only as History in your own locality, close to your home, insular and small. Local history, however, covers every conceivable topic which can be studied in a geographical area; smaller than the country as a whole. Including everything from the history of individual people, families, buildings and streets, up to whole regions. By placing these in ‘a comparative context’ we are able to make links to the national and international connections.

The National Curriculum situation is: At KS1 students study:

significant historical events, people and places in their own locality.’At KS2 ‘a local History study’‘a study over time tracing how several aspects of national history are reflected in the locality (this can go beyond 1066)’ and a study of an aspect of history or a site dating from a period beyond 1066 that is significant in the locality.’National curriculum in England: history programmes of study (September 2013).

The definition changes at Secondary school; the KS3 specification is almost identical to KS2, except for losing ‘that is significant in the locality’ in the last bullet point. At GCSE all three boards focus specifically on a place of historical interest in their Historical Environment, or (in the case of OCR) History Around Us section of the examination, they stress that the site must be placed in it’s historical context, which allows for the study of the events and people associated with the place.

It appears that many schools understand local history through the distorted window of KS4, where it is the place, or even the building that is paramount; that local history is little more than a glorified source analysis exercise. I would argue that through the study of local history, we can strengthen the sense of community, we can guide students in their development of civic pride.

Why embed it?

GCSE History is in danger of being an overflowing pick’n’mix, an admirably broad but potentially unsatisfying dash across disconnected periods, where complex events and ideas pass in a blur like a fox in morning mist, half glimpsed from a train window. https://tryingtomakesensejamesvwoodcock.wordpress.com

Taking a Chemistry analogy; students should see their Historical skills as a compound, where they are used in combination, rather than as a mixture in which each element is essentially used separately.John Beckett suggests it isn’t just educators who face challenges:

local history does not have an established network of scholars who can share experience and practice, let alone an effective means of reaching out to the myriads of amateur practitioners across the globe who are working on a locality.’ – Local History in its comparative international context – John Beckett, in The Local Historian – Volume 41, Number 2 – May 2011

Support for local history studies is expanding, as recently as September 2017 we find:

‘The opportunities afforded by local history are far from parochial. The study of a neighbouring town, a local battalion, a village street or even a single building can help pupils to explore questions about the shaping of identity, about the concept of place, and about historical diversity. The value of studying local history is long established and much discussed. It can spark curiosity, strengthen substantive knowledge and make a very distant past more concrete and more relevant. It allows pupils to see the role of smaller stories within broader narratives. A single site or ‘time-thickened’ building can act as a locus for multiple narratives.’ New Novice or Nervous? The Quick guide to the ‘no-quick-fix’ – Local History in TH168

When the SHP re-published their principles a short while ago, we found this:

Generating an interest in, and knowledge of, the historic environment has been a core principle of the Schools History Project since its inception. Engaging with ‘history around us’, and considering what the historic environment can tell us about people’s lives and beliefs in the past, are some of the most stimulating aspects of learning history. The Project believes that there should be more opportunities for children and young people to study ‘history around us’ and it continues to develop innovative approaches to the study of the historic environment. – http://www.schoolshistoryproject.co.uk/about-shp/principles/

So how can we help the vast majority? I feel, if we are going to provide ‘more opportunities for children and young people to study ‘history around us’, then there needs to be more ‘history around us’ in their studies, put simply more students, with more time, studying events, people and places within a limited geographical area.

A sense of Place

People develop a “sense of place” through experience and knowledge of a particular area. A sense of place emerges through knowledge of the history, geography and geology of an area, its flora and fauna,the legends of a place, and a growing sense of the land and its history after living there for a time.http://www.makingsenseofplace.com

A study of a local place encourages students, we can engage them more effectively by helping them to see the value of a place, by developing their historical understanding of the relationships between local, national and international aspects. I have found, in the main, increased engagement; students are much more willing to speak up, which could simply be because they feel thay have greater knowledge, but the resulting effort makes it appear there is more to it than this.

“In an increasingly globalized world, there are often pressures for communities and regions to subordinate themselves to the dominant economic models and to devalue their local cultural identity, traditions and history in preference to a flashily marketed homogeneity.  Place-Based Education: Connecting Classrooms and CommunitiesDavid Sobel (2004)

Not only can a place help students to make sense of the world in which they live, their place in the wider world; helping them develop a sense of identity, it can also provide deep emotional resonance.

Where to embed it?

As local History is recommended in the National curriculum for all Key stages, it seems logical to implement this approach at all Key Stages, to embed local history within Key Stages One through to Five. Some have argued that younger students will not cope with the complexity; that younger students are unable to comprehend the higher order concepts. Arthur Chapman’s Alphonse (see Teaching History 112) has shown that this is not the case, I have successfully used the unfortunate Alphonse with Y5 students, demonstrating to my satisfaction that casual reasoning can be taught from KS2 through to KS5. My reasoning, therefore, is that the concepts needed to study a locality and local history can be developed across the Key Stages, building a continuum of conceptional reasoning.

How to embed it?

When looking at embedding we need to consider it is especially because of it’s geographical restriction, that Local history is best placed to: facilitate the study of individual reactions to events, to practice demographic enquiries and to carry out micro studies.

My approach to embedding local history is based upon Michael Riley’s suggestion:

(LT) Light touch local history: using local sources to start,illustrate, complicate and challenge national narratives.

(H&H) Half and half history: blending local and national history in Key Stage 3 enquiries.

(HAU) History around us: independent enquiry in the historic environment.

Michael Riley – Project Director SHP

Eighteen years ago, Michael began the discussion on arranging and positioning enquiry questions across the whole Key Stage, in his seminal piece Into the Key Stage 3 history garden: (TH99, 2000), he argued for

a restructuring of the whole Key Stage 3 history garden in order to create stronger themes, deeper understanding and greater overall appeal.’

I have taken a KS3 SOW example that I have had no input in producing. Alex Ford has given me permission to use this from his website (http://www.Andallthat .co.uk /ks3-teaching-resources.html)

What you will see in the next version are suggestions for local history elements in the lessons, the bottom row shows a homework suggestion.

Homework

The homeworks are effectively standalone local history enquiries, designed to take the half term to complete, therefore students will practice HAU even if the topic has no or a LT local history element.

An example – Anglo-Saxons

Local sources from the Anglo-Saxon period are abundant, especially north of the Tees; the land of Cuthbert and Bede. A simple and engaging activity is my What can place names tell us about the Anglo-Saxons activity: where students examine the Anglo-Saxon origin of their locality.

Names with ‘ton’ (or a derivative) and a direction in front of it are common – Norton, Sutton, Weston and Eston, for example. Some place names refer to nearby natural features such as Brockton and Brotton – local brooks. Marston and Merston refer to a nearby marsh land while Wotton and Wootton refer to nearby woods.’ (My worksheet)

As you can see the LT can be achieved easily. To create a contrast with post Norman England I try to provide a taste of Anglo-Saxon cultural evidence, with the enquiry ‘What does the evidence tell us about the Anglo-Saxons?’

In the summer of 1982, children playing on a rope-swing beside Mill Lane noticed human bones in the hollow scoured out by their feet. The Police were initially called, who in turn called in the archaeologists. The bones were those of a woman aged between 25 and 35, who had been buried with some of her personal possessions, including a bronze brooch and a necklace of glass and amber beads. These finds were dated to the 6th century. (Tees Archaeology website)

Added to the language evidence this gives context and a comparison for later topics, it also challenges the national narrative that focuses on warriors. The Anglo-Saxon chronicles can be introduced with entries relevant to the locality, and then expanded to the national picture, to give H&H history. The suggested HAU are: the Battle of Billingham in 796 and the Saxon Princess.

A study of the 796 Battle, especially the tactics and weaponry will provide the basis for a comparative enquiry when Stanford Bridge and Hastings are studied later. The Saxon Princess enquiry is because:

The Discovery in 2005 of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Street House, near Loftus, came as a surprise as preliminary work suggested that there was only an Iron Age enclosure on the site. Subsequent excavation over three seasons between 2005 and 2007 revealed a 7th-century cemetery with 109 graves, five of high status containing treasure and one containing an Anglo-Saxon bed, the first to be recorded in northern England. (A Royal Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Street House, Loftus, North-East Yorkshire, 2012)

The Saxon museum homework can be of any scale, students produce a model for an exhibition at a local museum, most museums will have a website if a visit is not possible. The model can be from a simple written description to an actual model, with labels and artefacts; although unless you have a huge storage area, I suggest limiting the size of the model to a shoe box. The advantages of models are that marking of the homework is much reduced, and you have something to display at an open evening. With the focus on the locality, students are researching within geographic and chronological boundaries, which provides, for some students I have found, a security, the familiarity gives them a secure base from which to explore something new.

What to embed?

Archaeology

A good start is the HER; The Historic Environment Records

“HER’s are information services that provide access to comprehensive and dynamic resources relating to the archaeology and historic built environment of a defined geographic area.” . . . “There are over 85 HERs in England which are maintained and managed by local authorities as the essential core of historic environment services.” (https://historicengland.org.uk)

Battlefields

Obviously as a regional officer for the Battlefields Trust I would recommend Battlefields for a local history study – see http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/page154.asp.

Battlefields can provide excellent H&H enquiries, as they provide the link between a localised event and the national picture; there are very few UK battles that do not have national influence. It can be argued that as local history is ‘the study of past events, or of people or groups, in a given geographical area’, every Battlefield study, is a local history study, for they are all confined within a geographical area.

Many students also encounter the Great War through the study of war poetry in English lessons. Students who opt to study History at GCSE may study the Great War, or aspects of it, as part of topics such as ‘Conflict and tension, 1894-1918’ or ‘War and British Society c.790 to c.2010’. At ‘A level’ both the First and Second World Wars features as part of topics such as ‘Britain 1900-1951’, or ‘Germany 1871-1991’. And this is before we look at the GCSE thematic study Warfare Through Time.

Careful study of a battlefield, its topography, structures, history and archaeology can tell us much about the course of a battle, but more importantly it can also tell us about the world in which it was fought and the people who took part. It also has the advantage that the geographical and chronological boundaries are relatively small; literally restricted to little more than a field, on a particular day; most of the time prior to the 18th century.

If I may say so, most battles have an exciting and engaging narrative; there is something to capture the imagination, the one drawback is the lack of structures or buildings.

The advent of digital maps and virtual reality allows HAU studies like ‘What was the most significant cause of the SS Cap Arcona disaster?’ It looks like AQA are having similar ideas, on 7th May 2016, they posted on their website:

We’re delighted to announce the specified historic sites for our GCSE exams in 2018, 2019 and 2020. These are covered in the historic environment element of the British depth studies. . . . for students taking exams in 2020

  • Norman England, c1066 – c1100: The Battle of Hastings, October 1066

  • Medieval England, the reign of Edward I, 1272–1307: The Battle of Stirling Bridge, September 1297

  • Elizabethan England, c1568–1603: The defeat of the Spanish Armada in the English Channel, July/August 1588

  • Restoration England, 1660–1685: The Dutch raid on the Medway, June 1667

http://www.aqa.org.uk/news/historic-environment-sites-announced

Buildings

What remains of James Pennyman’s North Ormesby?

In 1853 James White Worsley moved into Ormesby Hall.
To inherit James added the surname Pennyman, he almost immediately began to plan a township on his estate land.
Now James White Worsley Pennyman, he rented and sold plots of his land for housing. His son, James Stovin Pennyman, continued to build North Ormesby, until forty years later, in 1913, North Ormesby became a large part of the town of Middlesbrough.

Your task is to explain how and why the township of North Ormesby developed, and using evidence, say what remains.

I found that we could delve deeply, considering small aspects which then led to further enquiries; for example, the Cottage Hospital in this model village was one of the first in the country. A homework task for GCSE Medicine Through Time students not only compared this to Medieval hospitals, but also set up the sequence of lessons on the formation of the NHS. More detail can be found at http://thenandnow.edublogs.org/

A ‘Then and Now’ image is also much simpler now than ten years ago when digital cameras were so expensive. Local Buildings, or even the lack of them, can be used for LT in most topics, from the Anglo-Saxon Church to the Cold War Bunker – see A List of all known “Cold War” Nuclear Bunkers and Subterranean Complexes in the UK.

At 1.42 on Saturday, 25 May, the first German bombs to fall on an industrial town came down near North Ormesby. Twelve more fell as the aircraft flew on a corridor over South Bank and Grangetown. The last device exploded near the Dorman Long steelworks, injuring eight men. http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/tees/hi/people_and_places/ history/ newsid_8701000/ 8701200.stm

An advantage of buildings and structures is that they can be used to develop heritage trails, you can literally have points in the trail set in stone.

Structures are ideal for local history, which maybe why the GCSE specifications for the local study appear to be heavily skewed towards structures. They are also ideal for LT, the TV programme ‘A house through time’, has demonstrated how a depth study of just a single building can lead to an exploration of regional, National and International History, something which I have replicated with students; the Deanston Distillary building has a fascinating history as well as a personal connection. As Michael Riley demonstrated at the 2017 summer conference in his Picturing the past session, reconstructions can be as valuable as site visits.

Displays

My son’s Y2 homework was designed for display, it was a culmination of his local history project.

I would consider homework to be outside the remit of standard classroom activities, displays fulfil a similar role. The simple task of requiring students to produce ‘pen portraits’ of significant individuals from the locality was expanded to a display in one school.

This year has seen the completion of the £8 Million refurbishment and renovation of Middlesbrough Town Hall. Leading the outreach programme enabled me to design materials that studied the building in depth, but also gave us the possibility of opening out the enquiry to the general public. A hardhat tour, allowing students to study the interior of the building during the renovation, was followed by a tour of the exterior. Nine Junior Schools and three Secondary Schools took part. The timeline on the hoardings, placing the building within it’s local historical context, was very popular, receiving positive comments from the local media.

Events

Clearly most events will come under the local history criteria, as they will happen within a geographical area, and many will have national and International significance. However even the most mundane events can enhance an enquiry; The Billingham Manorial rolls from the medieval period are a good example.

Middlesbrough being the first British industrial town to be bombed in the Second World War, is a LT with a powerful effect, rebelling against the London-centric focus of ‘The Blitz’ has, I have found, incentivised students to study the topic. The raids on Thornaby Aerodrome and ICI Billingham a fortnight later, in early June 1940, highlight the bombing campaign which preceded ‘The Blitz’ on London.

As a contrast, the embedding of local history can be used to work in the opposite direction; rather than take a local event and use it to enrich a National or International topic, one can zoom down from an international event to draw out it’s significance to the locality.

Very few people have heard of The Battle of Stockton, but this event on 10th September 1933 can be used to show the influence of a number of National and International events on the town of Stockton-on-Tees. A century earlier, the events of the 27th September 1825 is recognised as being of International significance, and is rightly celebrated. Rather than look at it from the perspective of a local event; I suggest we could take an International aspect and zoom back to 1825. The enquiry question ‘Why on earth would Vietnam choose to put Locomotion on one of their stamps?’ has rarely failed to capture the imagination of students. 

A benefit of using local events is that the enquiry can draw from the local community, allowing students to engage with people from outside the school; thereby engaging the interest and imagination of students and the wider community.

Memorials

How should we remember . . .” enquires are popular. One of the advantages of memorials are that they mean different things to different people; like events they are open to interpretation.

The German word for monument is Denkmal, which translated means ‘thought object.’ If we are clever we can use these monuments, including those of the Confederacy, to be instructive, by interpreting them within their context. (Take the Journey: Teaching American History Through Place-based Learning, James A Percoco, 2016)

We can use these ‘thought objects’ to help students to think about context, feeding context into local history, and memorials specifically, thereby enriching and developing enquiries.

One example of a topical and controversial memorialisation is the campaign to mark ‘Peterloo’. The Peterloo Memorial Campaign (http://www.peterloomassacre.org) are working hard on the bicentenary events, and can be used to examine the various ways we now memorialise events and people. The beauty of memorials is that they enable the development of most of the historical skills; Significance, interpretation and diversity. I was struck by the differences between the design of the smaller district memorials, which was reinforced when I did some research on a Stockton VC winner; there are two Middlesbrough VC winners to compare. Although I have not developed upon the idea, it strikes me as great opportunity to examine the similar and different ways in which we memorialise both events and individuals.

Poetry and Song

An interest in the potential of song as a source of evidence in the history classroom has burgeoned recently. Mastin, Butler, Sweerts and Grice all make the point that songs possess a power to engage and draw students into the study of history. Few would disagree that songs make excellent initial stimulus material and most of us, at one time or another, have employed song in this way. For me, however, the real significance of that selection of previous Teaching History articles is their suggestion that song can deliver much more than this. Songs can, they propose, be incorporated into the processes of historical enquiry and play a role in developing students’ historical thinking. Songs can in fact be used to develop students’ conceptual understanding of history. (Introduction to Down the foggy ruins of time: Bob Dylan and the concept of evidence. Chris Edwards TH 140, 2010) https://foggyruins.wordpress.com/

In 2006 I hosted a workshop showing how I used song and poetry to enrich enquiries. Following Chris’ lead I have now begun to use them in a much more structured way to enrich local history enquiries. I have moved beyond just using a song to provide a narrative of an event or place, to using them to challenge the preconceived idea that some sources have more authority than others, this has allowed me to develop how students conceive of sources as evidence.

A good example of this is John Barbour’s The Brus; his most renowned work, an historical verse poem about Robert the Bruce. The length of the narrative poem does create a challenge, but this is well worth overcoming to highlight the historical, and more particularly the patriotic elements that make clear the purpose of the poem. I feel the preconception that poems and songs lack the authority of more ‘academic’ sources, makes them less daunting for students to access.

The cholera’s coming is short enough for students to explore every aspect, but can tell us a lot about what people understood about the causes and remedies at the time of the 1832 Cholera outbreak. It is also valuable in developing students understanding of how to use evidence, for it challenges the concept of sources of information, by addressing the constructed hierarchy of reliability.

songs like Dylan’s are historical representations conveying meanings about the past.Down the foggy ruins of time: Bob Dylan and the concept of evidence. Chris Edwards TH 140, 2010)

The term ‘Folk Music’ derives from Folklore; the traditional beliefs, customs, and stories of a community. Folk music, by definition therefore, includes traditional music and songs, making many contemporary to the topics we study.

After exploring stories relating to homophobia, the refuge crisis and the foundation of M&S in their 2017 album Strangers, the 2018 touring project The Ballad Of Johnny Longstaff sees TheYoung’uns turn their attention to a very different story. Combining songs with archival photographs and oral history recordings from the Imperial War Museum, multi-media show The Ballad Of Johnny Longstaff explores the life of a lad who found himself witnessing, and partaking in, a remarkable run of historic and life-changing events. https://www.whatsonlive.co.uk/birmingham/event/the-glee-club/the-younguns/251111/107491/799#interviews

The Young’uns (http://www.theyounguns.co.uk) first came to my notice when I became involved in The Battle of Stockton memorial campaign (http://www.Battleofstockton.co.uk) as they have a song of this title on their ‘When our Grandfathers said No’ album. If we take this one song as an example, it can be used in a number of ways to develop historical understanding: it provides a narrative of an historical event, it illustrates, complicates and challenges national narratives.

I would suggest this song can also be used in an enquiry which is focused on any of the historical concepts: continuity and change, cause and consequence, diverse experiences, or significance, and with the addition of the local history aspect it can help students to gain an historical perspective. This song can be used to develop students’ conceptual understanding of history, whilst additionally, developing the skills they need for a local history enquiry.

Deeply embed local history

Few subjects can be as emotive as The Holocaust, and there can be a danger of over emphasising the emotional aspect; students can become overwhelmed by the scale and depth. A sense of place can help to contain, and to some extent help to control the emotional aspect; to enable students to handle the context and content more easily. However it can also be used to demonstrate, in an accessible way, the impact of the events on individuals. The Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research encouraged and advised us to use witness testimony and to:

Individualise the history by translating statistics into personal stories.

Hand Book for teachers Guidelines for Teaching about the Holocaust

We can talk to students about events in Vilna, or in the Vilna Ghetto, but without a sense of what this place is, students lose out on the nuances and complexity, and will fall back on stereotypes and generalisation. Vilna can be used to demonstrate the complexity and uniqueness of the Holocaust in a way Auschwitz-Birkenau cannot, students can relate their own experiences much more readily, they can study a street, homes, kitchens and bedrooms that will have some similarity to their own. Vilna is a place in which, prior to 1941, live was ‘ordinary’ the people lived their lives much as we do today, whereas Auschwitz-Birkenau is unique, it is extraordinary, there is no place on Earth like it.

A carefully chosen place, can be used to support students in their reasoning, at the simplest level, it is allowing them to use prior knowledge that would take hours to acquire through study; they don’t need to research a home, for example, they will have prior understanding, and will be able to relate to the emotions attached to a home. Local history provides deeper resonance, enabling the development of deeper historical understanding.

What is local history?

local history is the study of past events, people or groups, within a given geographical area.

A sense of Place

A sense of Place can help students to make sense of the world in which they live, also their place in the wider world, helping them develop a sense of identity, it can provide deep emotional resonance.

Why embed it?

The study of a town, a local battalion, a village street or even a single building can help students explore questions about the shaping of identity, about the concept of place, and about historical diversity; local history can develop their historical skills.

Where to embed it?

As local History is recommended in the National curriculum for all Key stages, it seems logical to implement this approach at all Key Stages, to embed local history within Key Stages One through to Five.

How to embed it?

(LT) Light touch local history: using local sources to start, illustrate, complicate and challenge national narratives.

(H&H) Half and half history: blending local and national history.

(HAU) History around us: independent enquiry in the historic environment.

Homework

What to embed?

  • Archaeology

  • Battlefields

  • Buildings

  • Displays

  • Events

  • Memorials

  • Poetry and Song

Deeply embed local history

A sense of place can help to contain, and to some extent help to control the emotional aspect; to enable students to handle the context and content more easily. However it can also be used to demonstrate, in an accessible way, the impact of the events on individuals. Local history provides deeper resonance, enabling the development of deeper historical understanding.

The presentation can be found here:http://prezi.com/o8nqgvtofxj1/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

it is suggested that one refers to the above notes to aid explanation of some aspects, if you have questions or require clarification, then please contact me at foxy.foxburg@ntlworld.com

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