After listening to @VirtuallyTeach FAB new podcast on decolonising the curriculum, @DavidJHibbert and I have been discussing whether ‘Silences’ should become an explicit feature of any historical significance criteria...
Most of our local schools use the 5Rs as an analytical framework for pupils first encountering significance. Clearly, ‘silences’ could fall into ‘revealing’ (eg it reveals these peops didnt write) or indeed ‘resonant’ (eg when a person discovers their relatives narrative is lost)
However would it be useful to foreground Silences so when assessing significance of the past, pupils are directed to consider: removal of traces (eg GB in 50s Kenya), oppression of voices (eg plantation slaves), lack of archival materials (eg Mongols) etc?
@PaulaLoboWorth has written the best thing I’ve read recently on significance in practice which left me constantly agonising over significance. This seems another spanner in the works. Anyone have any thoughts on this?? @SnelsonH, you’ve been struggling with this too, right?
You can follow @mrwbw.
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