Bound as we all are,and not just as teachers, by the Equality Act, (not to mention our public sector duty), we need to do all we can to advance equality and the primary history curriculum and the history classroom is a good place to start. With a changing demographic that shows the proportion of pupils from BAME background steadily rising to 31.1% in January last year, there is an educational as well as an ethical imperative to ensure that black people play an appropriately prominent role in the curriculum. We are not talking about a few black walk-on parts or a token reference here and there.
Instead, we must use the intellectual dynamism required of the subject to ensure that pupils are exposed to multiple and often disputing voices, including black voices.
This is a particular concern of mine as a while ago the DfE published its Ethnicity and Education paper which showed history to be one of the least popular subjects among a range of minority ethnic groups. Specifically those of Afro-Caribbean heritage felt alienated.
That is not to say that we should skew the curriculum away from British history, just make it more representative. After all, as many
