40 Ways to Diversify the History Curriculum: A practical handbook

In writing this book, Elena Stevens' aim is to respond to calls for a more diverse, decolonised curriculum - calls which have become more insistent following the reinvigoration of the Black Lives Matter movement, the #MeToo movement and other landmark events. Highlighting the lived experiences of women, the working classes, and BAME and LGBTQ+ communities in particular, 40 Ways to Diversify the History Curriculum draws upon a wide range of personal stories to exemplify significant historical moments and shed new light on topics that have traditionally been taught through narrower lenses. The book serves as a resource bank for teachers wishing to enliven and diversify history lessons at Key Stages 2-3, GCSE, A level and beyond.Elena helpfully opens with a discussion of the theoretical/historiographical developments that lay behind calls to diversify the curriculum - and, to accompany each of the 40 historical case studies, she provides ideas and activities for translating the case studies into lesson plans and enquiries. Furthermore, Elena also guides teachers in shaping new enquiries from scratch.Suitable for teachers of secondary school and Key Stage 2 history.

About the Author :
Elena Stevens is a secondary school teacher and the history lead in her department. Having completed her PhD in the same year that she qualified as a teacher, Elena loves drawing upon her doctoral research and continued love for the subject to shape new schemes of work and inspire students' own passions for the past.

Review :
This is a timely and inspiring book which provides history teachers and educators with excellent theoretical and practical advice on how to diversify their curricula. Not only does Elena Stevens provide a clear rationale on why we should diversify many different areas of the 'traditional curriculum' but, crucially, she also offers many practical ideas, strategies and even enquiries to inspire teachers to help create a curriculum fit for the twenty-first century.40 Ways to Diversify the History Curriculum is a real, practical guidebook that should be a core text in all history departments.Richard McFahn This book is a must-read for any teacher of history, offering detailed, practical and insightful advice on diversifying the curriculum. These are not 'top tips' or tokenis- tic gestures of representation, but deeply thoughtful suggestions linking to second-order concepts which will help students understand how, as the author makes clear in her introduction, identity and representation matter in shaping our sense of self, our communities and the ways in which our conception of the world is constructed. In doing so, Elena Stevens doesn't simply introduce us to people and situations we may have been ignorant of, but she offers a way of making us all better historians along the way. And, it would not be too much to claim, better human beings too.Debra Kidd Designing a history curriculum is a fraught activity, with an unmanageably wide canvas to draw from and every decision saying something about the relevance, or significance, or impact of a particular event, person or period. An additional limi- tation is provided by what is already known to the teachers - not only can you not teach what you don't know, but it's also almost impossible to go looking efficiently if you don't know where to start. To this end, Elena Stevens' book is invaluable. If you are looking to move your curriculum beyond 'our island story', then 40 Ways to Diversify the History Curriculum offers you a treasure trove of starting points: historical nuggets that have been looked over by a practised teacher's eye and are accompanied by suggestions for enabling the stories to capture students' learning and to swiftly develop their historical skills of enquiry and reflection. This is a fascinating resource that will send you off reading more about the questions that capture your imagination - there's something new here for everyone to find.James Handscombe