Historians say Michael Gove risks turning history lessons into propaganda classes

Academics warn against education secretary’s plan to celebrate Britain’s ‘distinguished’ role in world affairs Leading historians are to hit out against Michael Gove’s plans for history teaching, saying they risk “going down the route of propaganda”. Gove has said history in schools ought to “celebrate the distinguished role of these islands in the history of the world” and portray Britain as “a beacon of liberty for others to emulate” . But Tom Devine , professor of history at the University of Edinburgh, said: “I am root and branch opposed to Gove’s approach. It smells of whiggery; of history as chauvinism. You cannot pick out aspects of the past that may be pleasing to people.” Devine was speaking before a debate on history teaching at the Edinburgh international book festival , where he will be joined by Professor Linda Colley of Princeton University, and RW Johnson , the emeritus fellow in politics at Oxford. Devine said of the Aberdeen-raised Gove: “I find it remarkable someone educated in the Scottish system can come up with this nonsense.” Speaking about Gove’s contention earlier this year that the history syllabus “doesn’t mention a single historical figure – except William Wilberforce and Olaudah Equiano” – key figures in the British movement to abolish slavery – he accused the secretary of state of creating “straw men”. “The syllabus is not devoid of content. History teaching has never been more exciting.” Also speaking in Friday’s debate, which is organised by the London Review of Books , is South Africa-based historian RW Johnson, who warned against the follies of a celebratory, nationalist syllabus. “I live in South Africa, a society where nationalism is running riot in history teaching, and the results are disastrous,” he said. History teaching before 1994 was there, he said, to “bolster up Afrikaaner nationalism, and black South Africans were merely the objects of history”, he said. “Now, under the ANC, that has completely reversed. The years 1652-1994 are simply called ‘the oppression’ and everything about that period is lost. You wouldn’t know that South Africa fought in two world wars, sent troops to Korea and did other things other than whites oppressing blacks. “When it comes to 20th-century history, black people are portrayed as martyrs, heroes, victims and the whites as simply bastards. It is just as much a distortion as was Afrikaaner history.” He said, though, that teaching ought to be done through a frame of narrative history. “If you don’t have that you are a bit lost: we need to be able to look at the way things work out over a very long period: what the French call the longue durée .” Devine, who has advised the Scottish government on history teaching, agreed, saying that “one of the most important things about the discipline is to convey a sense of change over time, to do which you must present events chronologically.” But he warned against the “Burns-supper school of history” and insisted the history teaching needed to be “critical” rather than self-congratulatory. He also argued that though “national history should be the core”, world history must be taught in parallel “to avoid introspection and parochialism”. He acknowledged that in Scotland, there was a danger of the ruling Scottish National party “pushing Scottish history in a Braveheart direction”. Linda Colley, professor of history at Princeton, who also speaks in Friday’s debate, said she welcomed Gove’s interest in the teaching of history. “But the best way to do it,” she said, “is to make history compulsory to 16, as it is in many European countries. That gives teachers the room to teach it in a more nuanced way. If he is going to jump up and down about history teaching, this is the reform he should consider.” Devine condemned the quality of the debate over history teaching in England. “In Scotland, there would have been incandescence in the academic community and also in civil society. It has been a poverty-stricken and parsimonious debate.” Education policy History and history of art National curriculum Michael Gove Schools Charlotte Higgins guardian.co.uk

Posted by on August 17, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.