History in the Curriculum

Citation

Smith J (2024) History in the Curriculum. In: Rata E (ed.) Research Handbook on Curriculum and Education. Elgar, pp. 354-367. https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/research-handbook-on-curriculum-and-education-9781802208535.html

Abstract
First paragraph: Around the world the subject of history provokes more impassioned debate in the public sphere than any other. To be sure, we are veterans of the ‘Reading Wars’ and the ‘Maths Wars’, but school history seems more of an attritional forever war. Debates over school history matter because they seem a battle over the soul of the nation, or of humanity at large. The stories we tell our children matter because they tell us who we think we are. No question is more immediate or more disputed.