Increasing inclusion for ethnic minority students by teaching the British Empire and global history in the English history curriculum

Abstract

ABSTRACT From 2020, the long-standing debate regarding the English national curriculum’s capacity to discuss issues of ethnicity and race escalated. The history subject curriculum particularly is seen as excluding ethnic minorities from an ‘Island Story’ often depicting a White Anglocentric identity disassociated with the wider world. In 2021, the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report declared that secondary school education must play a central role in augmenting social inclusion and shaping future citizens. The government’s current position for increasing inclusion places responsibility at the feet of teachers and schools. It is claimed by government that the curriculum’s flexibility and broadness provide opportunity to inject more diversity to what is taught, thereby meeting any demands for inclusivity. Yet the 2021 Historical Association survey emphasised a need amongst teachers for greater support despite making great efforts to diversify the curriculum. This position paper argues that making the British Empire a compulsory topic within the English history curriculum provides a ready-made vehicle for enhancing diversity and inclusion. Bolstered by global history’s methodology of relying on multiple viewpoints, together they would decentre the history curriculum’s insular potential to offer a diverse, inclusive, modern global perspective of Britain’s ‘Island Story’.