ABSTRACT
This chapter reports on oral history interviews with 13 veteran history teachers. It focuses on the period 1985 to 1990, but includes data reporting from 1976. This chapter explores the variety of approaches to teaching history in existence in the mid-1980s, highlighting a continuum of practice between a traditional, didactic approach and the alternative ‘new history’ approaches formalised by SCHP. Teachers' choice of content and choice of approach is examined, followed by a consideration of teachers' diverging experiences of the introduction of the common GCSE examination. The chapter concludes with a consideration of opportunities for professional development and professional collaboration in the 1980s. This chapter includes teachers' voices on the use of sources in the history classroom, traditional teaching in the history classroom, pragmatic ‘dual practice’ approaches to teaching history, the impact of Schools History Project materials providing a general picture of practice in the history classroom before the introduction of GCSE and the National Curriculum.
