With the 30th anniversary of Black History Month well under way there have been more and more calls by Black historians to re-evaluate the way history is taught in schools to be more inclusive of Black history.
There is also intense debate as to how this should be done – ranging from making minor tweaks to a full overhaul of the history curriculum.
Many BAME (Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic) teachers and historians feel that the current modus is overly focused on slavery (perpetuating ideas of victimhood), US history and the US civil rights movement. Whereas, they argue UK Black history should be more British based, encompassing the BAME experiences of British colonialism and imperialism, and including BAME history in the UK and positive stories of Black people in Britain from Tudor times onwards.
Our next Sunday Assembly theme is The Miseducation of Britain. Our main speaker, Nadena Doharty, a sociologist of education and lecturer at the University of Sheffield, will share her ideas about how to eliminate both subtle and overt racist overtones from the history curriculum and introduce more inclusivity into the subject.
Links:
Green world: Decolonising the Curriculum – Why Black History Matters
