Perspectives on History Education in England

Abstract

THE CRISIS IN HISTORY has been generally acknowledged and widely discussed by historians and history educators in the United States over the past ten or fifteen years. A variety of studies and reports focusing on the status of history in high schools have suggested that the discipline is in disarray at the pre-collegiate level. Statistics concerning declining numbers of undergraduate history majors, a shrinking population of graduate students in history, and dismal employment prospects for academic historians have supported the perception that history has lost ground, that indeed the future of history teaching is, at best, uncertain. These concerns are not unique to the American context. To some extent, at least, the problems of history education must be viewed as modern problems. The development of the social science disciplines and their subsequent translation into high school courses have certainly contributed to history's situation. Certain social, political, and economic developments during the second half of the twentieth century and the directions they have dictated, e.g. a search for curricular relevance and a demand for courses in special subjects such as career education, consumer education, multicultural studies, and women's studies have also reduced history's importance as the central focus of the social studies curriculum in this country and elsewhere as well.2