Abstract

Using contrasting contexts of England and a post-conflict zone in the Middle East, this seminar will examine the history curriculum as an artefact being developed by communities of history teachers, in both settings, considering each in the light of Young’s ‘Future 3’. In England – we see history teachers continuing to renew a second-order knowledge tradition (discipline-derived notions of historical criticality) while increasingly arguing that this needs to be underpinned with stronger and more explicit emphases on the substantive (propositional historical knowledge). Among Lebanese teacher educators, scholars and teachers, we see interest in England’s second-order tradition as a way of enabling classroom history conversation in a setting where any proposition about the past is contentious and where, after violent civil conflict, Lebanese policy-makers still seek social cohesion through ‘unifying’, mono-narratives. England’s history teachers’ distinctive blend of substantive knowledge with a discipline-derived criticality aligns strongly with aspects of Young’s ‘Future 3’. How are English history teachers’ traditions and recent scholarship being used in Lebanon? How does this differ from approaches such as ‘multi-perspectivity’ more common in other post-conflict zones? Why, and to whom, is a ‘Future 3’ history curriculum now attractive in Lebanon and what are its chances? What is the nature and potential of history teacher curriculum leadership in both settings? And what issues of power are at stake and in play?