文档介绍：A History of School History 1 FROM NEW HISTORY TO THE GCSE 1960 s -1988 ‘ The struggle over history teaching is only beginning. It will ultimately be won not by ministerial memo or parliamentary decree, but in the classroom and the library. ’ 1 Despite the reputation of the 1960s for radical change, in history teaching little appeared in the average classroom to ruffle the impression that the traditional approach would continue to predominate. However, undercurrents of change had been stirring even in the 1950s as teachers grappled with the changed situation of Britain in the post-war era, no longer the mother of empire but a diminished political force on the world stage. What history was most suitable for the future citizens and workers of this new era? As the sixties progressed, the challenges of international petition meshed with the educational needs ofa new post-war generation and led to expansion in all sectors of education. New prehensive schools demanded a different ‘ all-ability ’ curriculum, tobe taught by young graduate ing out of the expanding teacher training colleges. All of these changes had implications for the teaching of history. Yet there were also substantial hindrances to change, some would say even including the history teachers themselves. Principal amongst the hindrances was an examination system which dictated the style of teaching downwards through the school. Teachers themselves worked in an isolated fashion – there was no culture of teamwork – which meant that individual teachers who were trying to change things had little impact beyond their own classroom. However, the chief block to change seems to have been their attachment toa long-standing national narrative outline which monly taught in the 1960s and even into the seventies. The ‘ great tradition ’of history teaching was an outline of British history which all schoolchildren were expected to digest in note-form during their secondary school years and regurgitate i