40 Ways to Diversify the History Curriculum

Elena Stevens is a secondary school teacher and the history lead in her department. Having completed her PhD in the same year that she qualified as a teacher, Elena loves drawing upon her doctoral research and continued love for the subject to shape new schemes of work and inspire students' own passions for the past.

Designing a history curriculum is a fraught activity, with an unmanageably wide canvas to draw from and every decision saying something about the relevance, or significance, or impact of a particular event, person or period. An additional limi- tation is provided by what is already known to the teachers - not only can you not teach what you don't know, but it's also almost impossible to go looking efficiently if you don't know where to start. To this end, Elena Stevens' book is invaluable. If you are looking to move your curriculum beyond 'our island story', then 40 Ways to Diversify the History Curriculum offers you a treasure trove of starting points: historical nuggets that have been looked over by a practised teacher's eye and are accompanied by suggestions for enabling the stories to capture students' learning and to swiftly develop their historical skills of enquiry and reflection. This is a fascinating resource that will send you off reading more about the questions that capture your imagination - there's something new here for everyone to find.James Handscombe