Drawing on findings from the landmark Portrait EMB research project (https://dx.doi.org/10.5287/ora-rvno97kbq), this session explores what is currently happening in schools in relation to teaching about the British Empire, migration, and belonging, and what educators can learn from emerging practice across England.
Based on one of the largest studies of its kind, involving over 1,000 teachers and 3,000 students, the report highlights both the opportunities and challenges involved in teaching these complex and often contested histories. Jason Todd will introduce key findings from one of the largest national studies of its kind, before Amy Smail shares practical insights from comparative case-study schools on curriculum, pedagogy, identity, dialogue, and whole-school culture across a range of subject and pastoral contexts. Beyond the classroom, the session will also consider how schools are attending to the “emotional by-product” of this teaching, with wider implications for school culture and ethos, fostering restorative relationships within and between students, and rethinking the role of student voice. Fred Oxby, Head of History at Wales High School, will then offer a grounded example of curriculum enactment, reflecting on the challenges and possibilities of teaching the British Empire in nuanced, ethical, and engaging ways- drawing on the reports principles. Attendees will leave with research-informed perspectives, practical ideas, and greater confidence in approaching this complex and important area of education.
Speakers:
Jason Todd is Senior Departmental Lecturer at the Department of Education at the University of Oxford and currently leads the PGCE History programme. Before joining the University of Oxford, he taught history for 19 years in various London state schools, including time as an Assistant Headteacher in a Special Needs school.
Jason is a Co-investigator on the ERC-funded grant to develop TRACTION (Teaching Race, Belonging, Empire and Migration) which won the Oxford Vice-Chancellors innovation award 2022. He has also been involved in the ERC-funded TIDE Beacon Teacher Fellowship Programme.
Amy Smail is a comparative educationist at IOE, UCL. Most recently, she led comparative case-study research in secondary schools in England as part of this three-year nationwide project, ‘A Portrait of the Teaching of the British Empire, Migration and Belonging’. Her wider scholarship explores the teaching of the British Empire in Ghanaian primary schools and decolonising citizenship through Pan-Africanism. She is currently undertaking a youth-led enquiry on ‘Britishness’ and its implications for pedagogy and curriculum, building on her role as an advisory member of the Oxford-UCL Nuffield-funded project, ‘Evaluating the Fundamental British Values initiative of the DfE’.
Fred Oxby is the Head of History at Wales High School in Rotherham and regional advisor to the schools History Project. He is also a doctoral student, working on approaches to teach sensitive histories of transatlantic enslavement and empire in British secondary schools.