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The new #curriculumforwales will allow schools to choose the precise history they teach as long as they meet some generic principles and the need for connecting the local, Wales and the World. (A long thread)
The Government hopes this will lead to more Welsh history being taught, including more attention to the history of people of colour in Wales. It has commissioned a body to examine how to encourage the latter but declined to make this history mandatory.
Nonetheless, there has been very little from government about how its aspirations will be implemented. There's no obvious engagement with the peer-reviewed evidence from elsewhere about how choice in the curriculum actually works out in practice.
A 2012 study of trainee teachers found some would avoid historical topics they felt were controversial. Others wanted to teach more about diversity but felt hindered by their schools. Some lacked confidence in how to bring about change.
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/26a8/9bc090a1617dd3b6fa961a0a2a6c1bbb88df.pdf
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/26a8/9bc090a1617dd3b6fa961a0a2a6c1bbb88df.pdf
A 2017 study found that despite the freedom the English curriculum gives, there is 'a large degree of uniformity' in the topics teachers choose.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03054985.2017.1352498
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03054985.2017.1352498
A report by @RunnymedeTrust found that a GCSE option module on migration to Britain has not had a large take up in England. It concluded there was a need for more training and support for teachers to teach Empire and migration. https://www.runnymedetrust.org/uploads/publications/pdfs/TIDERunnymedeTeachingMigrationReport.pdf
A study of New Zealand, which has also has a curriculum built on teacher autonomy, found that in practice teachers' decisions on what history to teach were constrained with some negative consequences.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00220272.2016.1149225?src=recsys
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00220272.2016.1149225?src=recsys
A 2001 study argued classroom pressures and the need for teachers to show they were succeeding discouraged new approaches and experimenting.
Korthagen et al, Linking Theory & Practice: The Pedagogy of Realistic Teacher Education; (2001).
Korthagen et al, Linking Theory & Practice: The Pedagogy of Realistic Teacher Education; (2001).
A study of Germany, Estonia & Finland found teachers can feel they don't have autonomy. This limits reform even when intended to empower teachers. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00220272.2016.1167960?src=recsys
A 2007 study showed how adding slavery to a curriculum, but nothing else on black history, can create problems for how black pupils perceive themselves. Thus tokenistic attempts to address difficult history can cause damage. https://mmu.rl.talis.com/items/2DF83FFB-19C0-152C-C309-020F57484034.html
Thus giving teachers freedom & encouragement to teach more challenging subjects such as the histories of racism, Empire & English conquest will not mean that these things just happen. Resources are not enough. Teachers need support and training.
Again & again, research shows that a lack of compulsion and day-to-day pressures mean teachers often stick with what they know. A huge curriculum change might not mean very much in practice because it allows choice.
Yet in some subjects Welsh government is willing to make things compulsory. Relationships and Sexuality education will be mandatory. It will be stipulated in law that teaching should reflect religious diversity but also that religion in the UK is "mainly Christian"
Thus in some areas, the government is willing to legislate to offer firmer direction. But the word "history" does not appear once in the curriculum bill.
