History Teacher Study Sessions

The Faculty of History ran a series of FREE Teacher Study Sessions in January and February 2022. The sessions offered History Teachers the opportunity to engage with latest subject specialist research. There were 3 sessions offered - Medieval, Early Modern & Modern. Each session included 4 papers and a roundtable discussion led by a University of Oxford, Faculty of History, academic post-holder. Recordings of these lectures can be found by following the links below. 

The aim of these sessions is to support History Teachers across the UK by providing access to high-quality subject-specific professional development opportunities. Ofsted’s Research review series: history paper published in July 2021 offers a review of research into factors that influence the quality of history education in schools in England. The report suggests that high-quality history education is supported when:

“Teachers and curriculum designers have secure and wide-ranging knowledge of the past, of academic history and of how to teach history to pupils. This is likely to be supported by high-quality, subject-specific professional development.”

This point is further supported by the Standard for teachers’ professional development published by the Department for Education in July 2016 which states:

“Effective professional development for teachers is a core part of securing effective teaching, and effective schools. It cannot exist in isolation, rather it requires a pervasive culture of scholarship with a shared commitment for teachers to support one another to develop so that pupils benefit from the highest quality teaching.”

The Faculty of History aims to support history teachers with their continuing professional development as historians and to provide the opportunity for them to engage with their subject beyond the curriculum. “Subject knowledge not only inspires pupils and helps them to achieve, it improves the quality of teaching as Ofsted’s evidence shows.” National College for Teaching and Leadership.

So, join us in the new year for some new research perspectives and the opportunity to engage with your subject beyond the classroom.

If you have any queries relating to the study sessions, or anything else regarding outreach and ways in which the Faculty of History can work with you to support history teaching in school, please do get in touch outreach@history.ox.ac.uk

The History Faculty’s outreach programme seeks to challenge educational inequalities across the UK.

To find out more, email outreach@history.ox.ac.uk.

For information about other Oxford University outreach activities, including UNIQ summer schools, Oxplore digital learning resources, and teacher conferences, see: ox.ac.uk/access.