Humanities in Primary Education

History, Geography and Religious Education in the Classroom

Don Kimber, Nick Clough, Martin Forrest, Penelope Harnett, Ian Menter, Elizabeth Newman

• Publisher: David Fulton Publishers
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781134086894
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Éducation
• Subtopic: Éducation générale

First Published in 1995. This innovative series is an ideal means of supporting professional practice in the post-Dearing era, when a new focus on the quality of teaching and learning is possible. The series promotes reflective teaching and active forms of pupil learning. The books explore the implications of these commitments for curriculum and curriculum-related issues. This book has emerged out of the collective experience of six colleagues who work together at the Faculty of Education of the University of the West of England, in Bristol. The twin strands here are a social constructivist model of learning and a reflective teaching model of pedagogy. Through reflecting on our experiences and evaluating their intentions, practices and outcomes, not only do we learn, but we also enrich the learning of those children, pupils and students with whom we are working.

Chapter One
Exploring Humanities in the Primary Curriculum

‘What is special about being human?’

This is a key question which will inform our thinking about primary children and their learning in humanities in primary classrooms. What would we seek to help children learn about themselves? How do they give meaning to their world and other people in it? What are some of the human values which we as adults and teachers would try to help them to clarify for themselves as they grow, as we hope they will, to take a responsible role in their community?

There are other central questions which we will explore. What is the nature of humanities education, and how can this relate to learning in the primary classroom? How do we see humanities relating to the overall (National) curriculum? How do children give meaning to the world around them, especially as it relates to humanities?

How do children best learn humanities? This is another key question. We might be involved with children formally in the school or classroom. There will be many other times when we are casually interacting with them in a non-school context. This could be in the supermarket, at a bus stop, or over the garden wall, if not at home. Frequently, often without our recognising it, we are trying to impart selected human values, knowledge, and understandings to children (no doubt reflecting our own preferences, not to say prejudices). Are there particular ways in which we should go about helping children learn ‘humanities’, based on well-defined, specific, recognised processes and conditions which more effectively help them to learn in general?

To provide a starting-point for exploring these central questions – ‘What is the nature of primary humanities?’ and ‘How do children best learn humanities?’ – we can reflect on the following scene in a small Gloucestershire school. It can illustrate how easily various aspects of humanities and of children’s learning can arise.

‘The person that did something’

It is a warm and sunny June morning in the Cotswolds. The village of Eastcombe is perched on a hill above the Stroud valley. Along the lane on the way to school, birds are singing, and fresh flowers are plentiful in the grassy verges. The peaceful scene accords with the typical picturesque postcard images we hold of such rural retreats.

The sound of children singing comes from the compact, stonebuilt village school. Inside 70 children from ages 5 to 11 are accompanied on the piano as they sing ‘When I needed a neighbour, were you there, were you there?’.

All the children are clustered in what is now one classroom. Originally this was the major part of a large school hall. Some of the area has been partitioned off to provide some space for an adjoining classroom.

Mrs Veronica Lee, the headteacher, and her three colleagues, are leading school assembly. The children settle and listen attentively after their rendition of ‘When I needed a neighbour’, which they had seemingly enjoyed.

‘At great expense’, begins Mrs Lee, ‘for your enjoyment’ – children are smiling, already aware that her words are not necessarily to be taken too literally – ‘we have been working hard on preparing a theatrical event for you. It has been very carefully rehearsed since we wrote it yesterday dinner time’.

Another colleague, bedecked in stunning floral headgear, stands up, and launches into telling a story of a traveller on a train to York. Mrs Lee and the two other teachers are sitting in a line of three chairs behind her. While remaining mainly seated, they occasionally stand up, and join in acting out some of the characters, or scenes as appropriate:

‘A man is travelling on the train to York. Unfortunately he finds himself mixed up with a bunch of football hooligans on the train.’

The seated trio produce football scarves, wave them in the air, and break into some familiar chants from the terraces. The teachers are enjoying this as much as the children.

‘… the traveller gets mugged by the hooligans. They rob him, take all his money, and leave him unconscious …’.

The storyteller goes on to describe how a vicar on the train comes along, is not sure how best to react to this situation, but stops to offer a prayer for the man. ‘A-a-a-men’ is piously intoned by the seated trio. Children chuckle.

Then the social worker with experience of working with children from an inner city council comes along. ‘I just le-erve children’ she oozes. But she feels unable to cope with the traveller who has been mugged. ‘Let me get a drink at the bar’ is the cry of this member of the trio. She walks unsteadily across ‘the stage’, murmuring ‘I just le-erve children’. Children again appreciate this.

A third traveller on the train was a ‘mean, no-good punk rock group leader’. He sees the plight of the man and acts. He stops the train, gives the man £20 for a new coat, and calls an ambulance to take him to hospital. The traveller is now safe and well looked after.

Mrs Lee rose to her feet. She looked around the room to get the attention of all the children. ‘When it came to the crunch,’ she asked, ‘who was the next door neighbour to the traveller?’

A 9-year-old girl says ‘The man that did something for him’.

Mrs Lee: Yes, the person that did something for him. Who is my neighbour?

Girl: Everybody.

Mrs Lee: I will now tell a similar story. But listen carefully.

Mrs Lee then told a more conventional version of the bible story of the Good Samaritan, with the familiar elements. On the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, a travelling Jew is attacked by thieves who leave him for dead. A priest comes by but hurries on. Then comes the Levite, a Temple assistant, who similarly passes by on the other side of the road. The Samaritan, a member of an ethnic minority group despised by the Jews, then arrives. He stops, gives the victim water, bathes his wounds, and takes him to a village to rest for a few days to recover. He leaves money to cover any expenses.

Mrs Lee: Jesus asked ‘Who was his neighbour?’

Child: The man who helped him.

Mrs Lee: How were these two stories related? Did they differ? John?

John: This was a modern-day version of it.

The children were then divided into two groups, and they joined in singing another song (‘Seek ye first the Kingdom of God’) as a round.

By their general responses, the children enjoyed hearing this story of The Good Samaritan and all appeared to listen attentively to both versions of it. At the time, they also had a clear idea of what it implied in terms of being a ‘good neighbour’. This was also evident in discussions with small groups of 8- and 9-year-old children in the session after the ‘assembly’. They appreciated that the stories were to help them understand how people should behave one to another. Sensitive and caring relationships were built on notions of ‘helping those in need’, and often the rationale was simply along the lines of ‘How would you like to be treated if you were in their position?’ (9-year-old girl). Such considerations of how people relate successfully to others is essential in the learning of humanities. The children also realised that this concept was pertinent to them, not simply how others should act. It was for them to try to practise in their own relationships.

In continuing this initial exploration of the nature of humanities, further clues as to how children appreciate the nature of humanities (as adults might perceive humanities) are offered in these snatches of dialogue. They were recorded in a subsequent visit to the school, when, after watching a video of the Good Samaritan assembly, we were able to discuss aspects of the story with 8-year-old children in small groups.

The following quotations are short extracts taken in sequence from a 20-minute discussion with one group of the 8- and 9-year olds.

Teacher: If we look at the time line up there on the wall, whereabouts was it when Jesus lived. Can you see? It says… 2 or 3 children offer ideas.
Teacher: Yes, you are nearly right. Right at the end there can you see where it says 43 and then 0. One thousand, nine hundred and ninety three years ago Jesus was born. Jesus lived in a land called…
Leonie: Jerusalem.
Teacher. You are very nearly right. Land of Palestine. Can you see? Have you got a map? This is the sea. You said Jerusalem. If we look there, that place is…can your read it?
Leonie: Jericho.
Teacher: Have you heard of the name?
Leonie: In the story.
Barry: North [looking at the map and pointing].
Teacher: Quite right – that’s North.
Eileen: The traveller – he got robbed.
Vincent: And punched and kicked.
Alison: They took his coat and money.

The children were talking about the experiences of the traveller mugged on the road from Jerusalem. Helped by the prompting of the teacher-interviewer, they were able to apply the story to the history timeline which was displayed prominently upon the classroom wall. They also very readily applied some of the map-reading skills which they had. Indeed Barry volunteered his understanding of the map symbol for ‘North’, for the benefit of the rest of us. This in turn helped to sustain the interest and involvement of other children, recognising that their contributions would likely be accepted and credited. The conversation then returns to the plight of the Jew travelling to Jericho.

A minute or two later it can be seen how discussion naturally enabled children to express ideas of place and of landscapes.

Teacher: But it was very rough wild countryside. In fact,…
Brian: [interrupting or contributing before a formal invitation to speak] They did not have many signs and things.
Teacher: There weren’t any signs. Now can you see what sort of country that looks like in the picture. Can you see, Rachel?
Rachel: Is it all sand?
Teacher: It is all sand.
Rachel: It looks like all hills, and it’s bumpy, and sand on.
Teacher: Bumpy and sand. What do we call places which are very hot – very hot and very sandy, and little rain?
Brian: Erhm…
Teacher: Beginning with ‘D’. Do you know Benjamin?
Benjamin: Desert.
Teacher: Desert. Desert – good. Have you all heard of deserts?
Rachel and others: Yes.
Teacher: Part of Palestine was like this, other parts had large cities.

In a later part of the discussion the children are offering their ideas about the work of a priest, and weighing up the rights and wrongs of what should have been the appropriate response of those who came across the traveller who had been mugged and left for dead.

Teacher: The first person who came along was a …p – pr -
Brian: Priest.
Teacher: Yes – What does a priest do? What’s a priest’s job? Do you know, Tina?
Tina: To help people.
Teacher: Yes, they should help people, but then perhaps we should all help people.
Brian: I know.
Teacher: Tammy, what else does a priest do. Anything else?
Tammy: They go to church.
Teacher: They go to church, yes, anything else?
Mark: I – they tell people things in church.
Teacher: Yes, they tell people things in church, so a priest would have been in the Temple, or the Jewish synagogue and helping people know what to do to be right. The priest hurried on his way didn’t he?
Child: Yeh.
Teacher: …and left the man there.
Anthony: Really, if he was – erm – was not on his way to church he would have stopped going and helped him.

These brief extracts from a 20-minute discussion with a group of 8- and 9-year old children offer a flavour of some of the various facets of humanities which can be involved in a discussion of a simple story with which children can identify. Let us now review in a little more systematic way the nature of humanities.

What is the nature of primary humanities?

This account of an assembly and a discussion in a Gloucestershire primary school indicates very well some of the key features of primary humanities. Firstly, we get the sense that humanities are very much part of the culture of a school as well as of timetabled subjects. Secondly, we get a sense of how different ‘subjects’ within the humanities overlap significantly. Thirdly, we see how cross-curricular elements are served by the humanities. There is a fourth aspect of this which has particular significance in the primary school, that the humanities very often complement a topic-based approach to the curriculum.

Before we proceed any further we do however need to attempt to define what we mean by humanities. Blyth (1990), in his book on assessing learning in humanities, suggests three perspectives constituting the humanities, namely historical, geographical and social-science perspectives. At the level of higher education, the humanities have traditionally been viewed as also involving the fields or areas of English and literature.

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Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Exploring Humanities in the Primary Curriculum
• Chapter 2 Roots and Traditions
• Chapter 3 People and Place
• Chapter 4 Stories, Values and the Challenges of Religious Education
• Chapter 5 Environmental Education
• Chapter 6 Education for Citizenship in a Changing World
• Chapter 7 European Dimensions
• Chapter 8 Staged Events and Experiential Learning
• Chapter 9 Humanities in the Primary Classroom – The Role of the Teacher
• Chapter 10 Conclusion
• Appendix: Council of Europe Memorandum on Teaching and Learning About Human Rights in Schools
• References
• Index