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I was supposed to be on the radio to talk about Labour& #39;s manifesto re. the teaching of the history of Empire but they ran out of time and it was cancelled. What I would have said is that, based on what we know so far, this is a really important initiative...as long as /1
...it doesn& #39;t simply invoke the balance-sheet approach, but encourages a critical and nuanced reappraisal of the history and legacies of Empire. The word & #39;injustice& #39; is used and I don& #39;t think that is unhelpful - history is not about justice, one way or the other. /2
The same goes for the notion of & #39;crimes& #39;, as mentioned before. Slavery was legal, for instance, so that concept doesn& #39;t get us far. British school-children today must not just be taught about how Britain abolished the slave-trade but also the preceding 200 years of slavery. /3
This is an important matter, which fully deserves being a political issue during the election, as it is not simply a matter of education. It goes to the very heart of today& #39;s crisis of identity and so many every-day issues concerning structural racism, inequality etc etc /4
A government initiative cannot be prescriptive but I have complete faith in today& #39;s history-teachers, who are fully capable of taking on this challenge - despite the pressures of admin, resources etc. /5
And I would love nothing more than a new generation of university students who had been exposed to a broader and more critical curriculum (beyond the Tudors, World Wars etc.), and who were aware of the legacies of the past that continue to shape their every-day lives. /6
