'Picturesque and dramatic' or 'dull recitals of threadbare fare': good practice in history teaching in elementary schools in England, 1872-1905

Smith, John T.

Abstract

This article draws on late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century teaching manuals, reports of Her Majesty's Inspectors, history textbooks ('readers'), other administrators' and teachers' accounts, policy documents and pupils' reminiscences to refute common and generalised assessments of the period (often by those who have not looked closely at these specific sources) that the teaching of history was a negative and boring experience, limited mainly and simply to reading comprehension of lengthy pages devoid of timelines and visual materials. The article concentrates on the experience of English elementary schools and draws comparisons between past and present teaching approaches. The findings show that there is extant evidence that there did exist in the late Victorian period clear conceptions of how to make history accessible to children, many of which reflect current best practice in the subject. They also show that many leading educationalists, and probably the teachers who read them, were aware of the need to make the subject accessible to children. The pupils themselves have left very little evidence of their experience, but some pupils were enabled to develop picturesque understandings of the past of benefit to their lives beyond the classroom. © 2014 © 2014 Taylor & Francis.

Citation

Smith, J. T. (2014). 'Picturesque and dramatic' or 'dull recitals of threadbare fare': good practice in history teaching in elementary schools in England, 1872-1905. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 46(1), 93-107. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220620.2014.856873

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 1, 2013
• Online Publication Date: Jan 6, 2014
• Publication Date: Jan 13, 2014
• Deposit Date: Jun 3, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 3, 2016
• Journal: Journal of educational administration and history
• Print ISSN: 0022-0620
• Electronic ISSN: 1478-7431
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 46
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 93-107
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00220620.2014.856873
• Keywords: English elementary schools
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/439193
• Publisher URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00220620.2014.856873
• Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in Africa Review on 06/01/2014, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00220620.2014.856873.