The role of moral education in the teaching of history in secondary schools

Abstract

This study examines (he role that moral education and values issues have played in (he teaching of history in this country from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the present day. It takes as its main thesis the view that moral aims were explicitly part of the subject's rationale in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but in the decades following the Second World War these aims were to a large extent disavowed and history teaching underwent a revolution in its content, purpose and processes. In recent years the agenda of history has changed yet again and with the introduction of a national curriculum in history, once again personal, social and moral aims have been expressed as part of that subject's purpose in the curriculum. This first part of the thesis offers an overview of the teaching of moral education in. schools and examines the issues concerned and looks at definitions of the terms involved. It then looks at various theories of moral development and curricular responses to them. The second and third chapters examine the moral elements of history curricula throughout the past two hundred years and seek to identify main areas where history may with integrity be taught to further the aims of moral education. Chapter four examines the issues discussed within the framework of the National Curriculum. The fifth chapter deals with the views of academic historians on moral concerns within history and their responses to this dimension in the National Curriculum. Chapter six takes a broad survey of history textbooks and their moral assumptions and use within the classroom. It also considers some of the implications of the National Curriculum on book resources. The conclusion draws the strands of the thesis together and tries to take a common-sense stance in the 'history debate.