Journal Article

Investigating narrative forms of history pedagogy in primary teacher education in England

Abstract

Narrative forms of history have a controversial status amongst professional historians, but the evidence for using narrative approaches in primary or elementary history is arguably stronger and principally based on educational psychology and pedagogical research. The literature review presented in this paper summarises the main arguments for narrative approaches including increased pupil engagement; a starting point for enquiry; an introduction into the complexity of history; and finally the development of historical imagination. This project employed two narrative techniques, ‘powerful stories’ and ‘event framing’, with non-specialised undergraduate primary trainees in an English university. Evidence from focus group interviews and online questionnaires suggests that if asked to conduct narrative based activities, trainee teachers respond enthusiastically to these activities. Trainees recognised some of the pedagogical challenges associated with narrative approaches, but also identified the educational advantages.

Authors

Percival, James

Oxford Brookes departments

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences\School of Education

Dates

Year of publication: 2017
Date of RADAR deposit: 2017-05-25

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Related resources

This RADAR resource is the Accepted Manuscript of Investigating Narrative Forms of History Pedagogy in Primary Initial Teacher Education in England