An Enquiry-based teaching of History with young children: Mediating immersion, resources, and perspectives

Abstract

The National Curriculum is a document written by the Department for Education and contains the statutory requirements all teachers in maintained schools in England must follow. This research study will examine the path primary teachers in England, those who teach 5 to 11 year olds, navigate to meet the requirements of the National Curriculum and encourage the skills of historical enquiry all whilst providing a creative and engaging environment for their young learners. To do this, semi-structured interviews with established primary school teachers, including some history subject leads, were employed to generate a rich description of the strategies they used to successfully navigate this tightrope. Findings show that the teachers involved in this study used a variety of creative strategies including drama, enrichment activities and examination of historical evidence to provide learning experiences of high epistemic quality. This will be used to provide a bank of ideas and strategies for primary ECTs entering the profession and enhance their professional development.