RESOURCE BOOKLET DECOLONISING HISTORY MAY 2021 - EUROCLIO
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Resource Booklet Decolonising History
May 2021
Decolonising History – Thematic Month Resource Booklet
Index
1. Keynote Lecture: Decolonising the Curriculum: an introduction 3
2. Workshop on “How do you Decolonise History? The example of CARGO Movement” 4
3. Workshop on “Making a difference: Learning to Recognise and Interrupt Personal Biases
in the Curriculum and Classroom” 5
4. Workshop on “Contested History in Public Spaces” 7
5. Workshop on “Tackling the textbook: recognising and rethinking colonial narratives” 8
6. Feed Forward and Exchange Session 8
7. Panel Discussion “Decolonising History: Voices from different fields” 9
8. EuroClio’s Articles on Decolonising History: An overview 12
9. An introduction to Decolonising the History Curriculum 16
Introducing the resource booklet
While calls for better education about the history of slavery and racism have been around for some
time, the killing of George Floyd and the subsequent momentum gained by the “Black Lives
Matter” movement have prompted mass protests and brought international attention to the
problem of systemic racism and injustice.
Decolonisation, while not a new concept, has increasingly been given light in public and academic
discussion in recent years. In April and May, EuroClio focussed on decolonising history - most
notably with a dedicated webinar series on the topic. This resource booklet provides an overview
of resources shared during the webinar series, articles published on EuroClio’s website as well as
teaching material and initiatives from around the world on the topic of decolonising history.
Are there resources you’d like to see included in the resource booklet? Education material in your
own language? A great podcast? Or do you know where to find sources to make our lessons more
inclusive? Please reach out at alicia@euroclio.eu with the subject line ‘decolonising history’.
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Decolonising History – Thematic Month Resource Booklet
1. Keynote Lecture: Decolonising the Curriculum: an introduction
Friday 16 April, 16:30 – 18:30
by Prof. Peter D’Sena, Royal Historical Association
Peter D’Sena is Associate Professor of
Learning and Teaching at the University
of Hertfordshire and a Senior Research
Fellow at the Institute of Historical
Research. His key contributions to
history education are borne from his
enduring commitment, over four
decades, to equality and inclusion. As a
writer of the revised National
Curriculum in the late 1990s he
championed the introduction of black history; now he continues to lecture and write on
decolonising the curriculum. As the HEA’s National Lead for History he organised the revision of
the QAA and created innovative resources for those ‘New to Teaching’. He is a fellow of the
Historical Association, a principal fellow of the HEA and last year he was elected to be the first
President of SoTL’s European branch for History. Professor D’Sena is also Vice-President and Chair
of Education Policy Committee at the Royal Historical Association.
Resources for exploring the ‘decolonising the curriculum’
• Ask your colleagues to do some research about decolonising; and to think about what
it means to them.
• You could start with these flashcards on the University of Hertfordshire’s Learning,
Teaching & Innovation Centre’s (LTIC) site, with links to reading and media (readings
for if you have 10 mins, an hour, or longer).
• Or you could use this annotated book list (in Talis) to get started.
• You could also begin by looking at other institutional pages on decolonising, such as
SOAS or the University of Westminster
Suggested reading and resources
Asante, Molefi Kete. "Afrocentricity." The international encyclopedia of intercultural communication
(2017): 1-11.
Bhambra, Gurminder K., Dalia Gebrial, and Kerem Nişancıoğlu. Decolonising the university. Pluto
Press, 2018.
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Decolonising History – Thematic Month Resource Booklet
de Sousa Santos, Boaventura. Epistemologies of the South: Justice against epistemicide. Routledge,
2015.
James, Cyril Lionel Robert. The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo
Revolution. Secker & Warburg Ltd., 1938.
Linebaugh, Peter, and Marcus Rediker. The many-headed hydra: Sailors, slaves, commoners, and
the hidden history of the revolutionary Atlantic. Verso, 2000.
Student Voices: Why is my curriculum white? University College London.
Atkinson, Hannah, Suzanne Bardgett, Adam Budd, Margot Finn, Christopher Kissane, Sadiah
Qureshi, Jonathan Saha, John Siblon, and Sujit Sivasundaram. "Race, ethnicity & equality in UK
history: A report and resource for change" (2018).
2. Workshop on “How do you Decolonise History?
The example of CARGO Movement”
Friday 23 April, 16:30 – 18:30
By David Rawlings, University of Bristol, and by Lawrence Hoo and Alison Hargreaves, members of
CARGO movement
David Rawlings is Senior Lecturer in History
Education at the University of Bristol. He is
subject lead for the History PGCE course and
advises a number of organisations and
publishers on the inclusivity and diversity of
their history education materials, including
how they can deliver more decolonised
histories. CARGO (Charting African Resilience
Generating Opportunities) is a collective of
artists, poets and filmmakers, led by
Lawrence Hoo and Charles Goulding, from across the globe with a single-minded vision to address
the balance of accessible narratives from the African diaspora. The CARGO classroom initiative
aims to address the narratives that are missing from the history that is taught in schools across the
UK, including the perspectives of individuals of African and African Diaspora descent and the
recognition of their resilience, contributions and visionary leadership: CARGO©
(cargomovement.org)
For more information and all the free lesson material please visit:
https://cargomovement.org/classroom/
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Decolonising History – Thematic Month Resource Booklet
3. Workshop on “Making a difference: Learning to Recognise and
Interrupt Personal Biases in the Curriculum and Classroom”
Friday 30 April, 16:30 – 18:30
Workshop hosted by Dr. Kay Traille, Kennesaw State University
Dr. Kay Traille is an associate professor of History Education and History at Kennesaw State
University. She has been teaching and mentoring for several decades in the field. Originally from
the United Kingdom, she moved to the USA in 2007. She continues writing and researching in the
field of teaching controversial issues and issues concerning students of colour and the teaching of
history. Dr. Kay Traille is the author of ‘Hearing their voices: Teaching History to Students of Color’
and ‘Teaching History to Black Students in the United Kingdom’.
Banaji, Mahzarin R., and Anthony G. Greenwald. Blindspot: Hidden biases of good people. Bantam,
2016.
Coates, Ta-Nehisi. Between the world and me. Text publishing, 2015.
Eberhardt, Jennifer L. Biased: Uncovering the hidden prejudice that shapes what we see, think, and
do. Penguin Books, 2020.
Hicks, Dan. The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution.
Pluto Press, 2020.
Laymon, Kiese. Heavy: An American Memoir. Simon and Schuster, 2018.
Lewis, Amanda E., and John B. Diamond. Despite the best intentions: How racial inequality thrives in
good schools. Oxford University Press, 2015.
Orange, Tommy. There there: A novel. Vintage, 2018.
Traille, Kay. Hearing Their Voices: Teaching History to Students of Color. Rowman & Littlefield
Publishers, 2020.
Traille, Kay. Teaching History to Black students in the United Kingdom. Peter Lang Inc. 2020.
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Decolonising History – Thematic Month Resource Booklet
4. Workshop on “Contested History in Public Spaces”
Tuesday 04 May, 16:30 – 18:30
by the EuroClio Secretariat, Dr. June Bam-Hutchison from the University of Cape Town and Dr.
Joanna Burch-Brown from the University of Bristol
Contested Histories is an IHJR-EuroClio flagship Initiative that studies disputes over statues, street
names, and other historical legacies in public spaces with an aim to identify principles, processes
and best practices for decision-makers, civil society advocates, and educators confronting the
complexities of divisive historical memory. Dr. Joanna Burch-Brown from the University of Bristol
spoke about her involvement with the We Are Bristol History Commission. Dr. June Bam-
Hutchison from the University of Cape Town in South Africa discussed the legacy of colonist Cecil
Rhodes.
Bam-Hutchison, June. "Epistemicide in the Cape: Symbolic and restorative justice in South Africa."
In Gender, Transitional Justice and Memorial Arts, pp. 117-135. Routledge.
Burch-Brown, Joanna., 2017. Is it wrong to topple statues and rename schools?. Journal of Political
Theory and Philosoph, 1 (1):59-88.
Contested Histories in Public Spaces: Principles, Processes, Best Practices, an International Bar
Association Task Force Report, 2020.
Picower, Bree. "Using their words: Six elements of social justice curriculum design for the
elementary classroom." International Journal of Multicultural Education 14, no. 1 (2012).
We Are Bristol: History Commission. Project Summary.
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Decolonising History – Thematic Month Resource Booklet
5. Workshop on “Tackling the textbook: recognising and
rethinking colonial narratives”
Tuesday 11 May, 16:30 – 18:30
by Tom Allen, Head of History at a comprehensive school in Bath, UK
Tom Allen is Head of History at a comprehensive school in Bath, UK. He has recently been working
with textbook publishers in the UK to reconsider the way colonial history is presented. In
September 2021 he is moving to Germany to begin working at an international school.
Akala. Natives. An EuroClio review of the book was published in early 2019 which you can find here.
Jones, Max, Berny Sèbe, Bertrand Taithe, and Peter Yeandle, eds. Decolonising Imperial Heroes:
Cultural Legacies of the British and French Empires. Routledge, 2017.
Satia, Priya. Time’s Monster. 2020.
Silverman, David J. This land is their land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth colony, and the
troubled history of thanksgiving. Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2019.
Smith, Anthony D. Myths and Memories of the Nation. Vol. 288. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1999.
Trouillot, Michel-Rolph. Silencing the past: Power and the production of history. Beacon Press, 1995.
6. Feed Forward and Exchange Session
Tuesday 18 May, 16:30 – 18:30
Molver, Luke W. & Malaba, Mbongeni. Shaka Rising: A legend of the warrior prince (The African
Graphic Novel Series). Story Press Africa, 2018. (Novels on King Shaka about the period just before
colonization of the region)
National union of students (NUS): Library Decolonise Education.
Stradling, Robert. Multiperspectivity in history teaching: A guide for teachers. Strasbourg: Council of
Europe, 2003.
Words Matter: An unfinished guide to Word Choices in the Cultural Sector. Tropenmuseum, Afrika
Museum, Museum Volkenkunde and World Museum.
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Decolonising History – Thematic Month Resource Booklet
7. Panel Discussion “Decolonising History: Voices from different
fields”
Dr. Marlon Moncrieffe
Dr. Mocrieffe is Senior Lecturer at the School of Education, University
of Brighton. His areas of research and interest are: 20th Century
Black-British histories to the present; National Identity, Decolonising
Curriculum Knowledge; Anti-Racism. In addition, he is a world
renowned expert on the history and lives of Black cycling champions.
He talked about ‘decolonising the curriculum’, starting from the
British curriculum and widening the angle to general considerations
about decolonising the curriculum
Moncrieffe, M. L. (2020). Decolonising The History Curriculum: Euro-
centrism and Primary Schooling. Springer Nature.
https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9783030579449
Moncrieffe, M. L., Stokes, L., Alexander, C. A., Nokes, C., Colburn, E., Crawley, A., Evans, C., Gibson,
P., Johnson, K., McKinnell, C., Osborne, K., Bell, A-R., (2020) Oral Evidence: Black history and
cultural diversity in the curriculum, HC 8793. Women and Equalities Committee and Petitions
Committee. London: House of Commons, UK Parliament, 18th November
2020. https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/1258/pdf
Aronksky, I. (2013). ‘History belongs to all of us’ Diversity and the History Curriculum. Primary
History, Issue 65/Autumn 2013 (5-11).
Chantiluke, R. (2018). British Values’ and Decolonial Resistance in the Classroom. In R. Chantiluke,
B. Kwomba, & N. Athinangamso (Eds.), Rhodes Must Fall: The Struggle to Decolonise the Racist Heart
of Empire. London: Zed Books.
Charles, M. (2019). Effective Teaching and Learning: Decolonizing the Curriculum. Journal of Black
Studies, 50(8), 731–766.
Hawkey, K., & Prior, J. (2011). History, Memory Cultures and Meaning in the Classroom. Journal of
Curriculum Studies, 43(2), 231–247.
Department for Education (DfE) (2013). ‘History programmes of study: key stages 1 and 2’,
National curriculum in England, The national curriculum in Britain Framework Document, July
2013, London: Department for Education.
Grever, M., Haydn, T., & Ribbens, K. (2008). Identity and School History: The Perspective of Young
People from the Netherlands and Britain. British Journal of Educational Studies, 56(1), 76–94.
Harris, R. (2020). ‘Decolonising the history curriculum’. In Moncrieffe, M. L, with Race, R., and Harris
R. (eds.) Decolonising the Curriculum – Transnational Perspectives, Research Intelligence Issue
142, Spring 2020 (p.16). London: British Educational Research Association.
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Maylor, U., Read, B., Mendick, H., Ross, A., & Rollock, N. (2007). Diversity and Citizenship in the
Curriculum: Research Review. London: The Institute for Policy Studies in Education London
Metropolitan University.
Moncrieffe, M. L., (2020). Decolonising the History Curriculum: Eurocentrism in Primary School
Education. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Moncrieffe, M. L., & Harris, R. (2020) 'Repositioning Curriculum Teaching and Learning through
Black-British history'. In Research Intelligence, Issue 144. London: British Educational Research
Association (BERA).
Rüsen, J. (2004). Historical Consciousness: Narrative Structure, Moral Function, and Ontogenetic
Development. In P. Seixas (Ed.), Theorizing Historical Consciousness (pp. 63–85). Toronto:
University of Toronto Press.
Spivak, C. G. (1999). Can the Subaltern Speak? Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Traille, K. (2007). ‘You Should be Proud About Your History. They Made Me Feel Ashamed:’
Teaching History Hurts. Teaching History, 127, 6–9
Dr. Heloise Sathorar
Dr. Sathorar is Head of Department for Secondary School Education at the School of Education,
Nelson Mandela University. Her areas of research and interest include: Decolonising Education and
Critical Pedagogy. Dr. Sathorar spoke about ‘decolonising teacher education’, starting from a
research she conducted with Dr. Deirdre Geduld in South Africa and widening the angle to more
general considerations.
Geduld, Deidre, and Heloise Sathorar. "Leading curriculum change: Reflections on how
Abakhwezeli stoked the fire." South African Journal of Education 36, no. 4 (2016): 1-13.
Sathorar, H., & Geduld, D. (2018). Towards decolonising teacher education: Reimagining the
relationship between theory and praxis. South African Journal of Education, 38(4).
https://www.ajol.info/index.php/saje/article/view/182628/172004
Sathorar, H., & Geduld, D. (2019). Reflecting on lecturer dispositions to decolonise teacher
education. Journal of Education (University of KwaZulu-Natal), (76), 108-127.
Dr. Laura van Broekhoven
Dr. Van Broekhoven is Director at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. Her current research interests
include repatriation and redress, with a focus on the importance of collaboration, inclusivity and
reflexive inquiry. Her regional academic research has focused on collaborative collection research
with Amazonian (Surinam and Brazil) indigenous peoples, Yokot’an (Maya) oral history, Mixtec
indigenous market systems, and Nicaraguan indigenous resistance in colonial times. She spoke
about decoloniality from the point of view of museums and museum curation.
Deloria, V. (1969). Custer died for your sins: An Indian manifesto. University of Oklahoma Press.
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Lonetree, A. (2012). Decolonizing museums: Representing Native America in national and tribal
museums. Univ of North Carolina Press.
Mavhunga, C. (2017). What do science, technology, and innovation mean from Africa?. The MIT
Press.
Mignolo, W. D., & Walsh, C. E. (2018). On decoloniality: Concepts, analytics, praxis. Duke University
Press.
Reiter, B. (Ed.). (2020). Constructing the pluriverse: The geopolitics of knowledge. Duke University
Press.
Santos, B. D. S. (2016). Epistemologies of the South and the future. From the European South: a
transdisciplinary journal of postcolonial humanities, (1), 17-29.
Smith, L. T. (2021). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples. Zed Books Ltd..
Stevenson, L. (2014). Life beside itself: Imagining care in the Canadian Arctic. Univ of California
Press.
Suggested Feminist writers:
● Amy Lonetree
● Audre Lorde
● Linda Tuhiwai Smith
● Maria Lugones
● Nana Oforiatta Ayim
● Sara Wajid
Sources shared by participants
Aronosvsky, Illona. (2013). Diversity and the History Curriculum. Historical Association.
https://www.history.org.uk/primary/resource/7005/diversity-and-the-history-curriculum
Azoulay, Ariella Aïsha. (2019). Potential History: Unlearning Imperialism. Verso. There is also a
podcast episode of This is Hell! in which Azoulay talks on imperial violence in the past and present,
unlearning history and her book. The episode can be found here.
Gyasi, Yaa. (2016). Homegoing: A novel. Vintage. the Ibis Trilogy by Amitav Ghosh
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8. EuroClio’s Articles on Decolonising History: An overview
Decolonising Literary Canons and Fostering Multiperspectivity through Fiction: why Nella
Larsen’s “Passing” should be used in history education
The book review focusses on Nella Larsen’s Passing. The novel belongs to the heyday of the African
American literature in the 1920s. Passing reflects upon African Americans' crisis of identity in a
white environment and their need to retrieve their ethnicity, but at the same time it also calls into
question the very notion of race, which is represented more as something ambiguous rather than
a defining feature. It depicts the complicated intersection of race, gender and social class, and the
clashes between personal freedom and social obligations.
Larsen, Nella. Passing. Chemeketa Press, American Voices Collection. 2018.
Rafia Zafar, “Black Modernism.” In The Cambridge History of American Literature. 1st ed. Vol. 6.
Cambridge University Press, 2002. 348-352.
Wertheim, Bonnie. Nella Larsen - A Harlem Renaissance-era writer whose heritage informed her
modernist take on the topic of race. The New York Times.
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Slavery addressed at the Rijksmuseum
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, well-known for its collection on Dutch 17th Century art, is also the
national museum for Dutch History. For the first time in its history, it is now hosting a temporary
exhibition on slavery. In the article EuroClio founder and special advisor Joke van der Leeuw-
Roord describes the exhibition which focuses on the personal and real-life stories of enslaved
people from different former colonial Dutch regions such as Suriname, the Caribbean, South Africa
and Indonesia.
Book review: White Privilege: The myth of a post-racial society
‘If we believe that education is a right and not a privilege then every individual,
regardless of their race, gender or socio-economic background, has a right to a
quality education’
White Privilege: the myth of a post-racial society explores how race operates as a form of
disadvantage in modern-day society. Kalwant Bhopal argues that individuals from Black and
minority ethnic backgrounds, by virtue of their racial identity, are positioned as outsiders in a
society that values whiteness and ‘white privilege’.
This book review explores the questions such as; How does whiteness manifest itself in the
classroom? How are black and minority ethnic groups disadvantaged in their schooling
experience? Are there ways to move forward and if so, what can educators do?
Bhopal, Kalwant. White Privilege: The Myth of a Post-racial Society. Bristol, UK; Chicago, IL, USA:
Bristol University Press, 2018. doi:10.2307/j.ctt22h6r81.
Guest Blog: What is Diversify our Narrative?
A grassroots organization composed of high
school/college students throughout the United States
of America pushing for equitable, long-lasting reform
within our school districts (public, charter, and
private). The centerpiece of this movement is around
the concept to #DiversifyOurNarrative through the
books, curriculum, and teaching practices we engage
in.
Workbook, Lesson Plan #1, Lesson Plan #2
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Decolonising the History Curriculum: Considering National Narratives in History Textbooks
from a Global Perspective
Decolonising the history curriculum is a topical issue. Decolonising in this context means a call for
what Meera Sabaratnam describes as a "better historical awareness of the contexts in which
scholarly knowledge has been produced". Especially since the nineteenth century, knowledge
about the English and Dutch nation has been built on colonial and racial structures. Sabaratnam
asks us to look at our shared assumptions about how the world is. Assistant Professor Tina van der
Vlies discusses the consideration of national narratives in history textbooks from a global
perspective.
De III Belgen, Zwart geel rouge (1999): ‘O dierbaar België, klein maar dapper, van stad tot vlakke
land’.
James Wertsch, ‘Specific Narratives and Schematic Narrative Templates,’ in P. Seixas (ed),
Theorizing Historical Consciousness, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004, 49-63.
James Wertsch, ‘The Narrative Organization of Collective Memory,’ Ethos, 36 (2008), 120–135, 124.
James Wertsch, Voices of Collective Remembering, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002;
Tina van der Vlies, ‘Multidirectional war narratives in history textbooks,’ Paedagogica Historica 52,
no. 3 (2016), 300-314
Tina van der Vlies, 'Echoing national narratives in English history textbooks,' in M. Carretero. S.
Berger & M. Grever (eds.), Palgrave Handbook of Research in Historical Culture and Education,
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017, 243-258.
Young, Alden. Do we need to decolonise history? And if so, how? HistoryExtra.
Decolonising history by reframing significance
An approach to decolonizing history education in an IB History classroom through a redefinition of
the concept of significance.
Decolonising the history curriculum is a multi-dimensional challenge. It provokes emotional
responses from different stakeholders - educators, students, and parents. In different regional and
national contexts, it raises questions about what history should be taught, and to what purpose.
Within our discipline - both in academic and school forms - it raises methodological questions
about how knowledge is constructed. Ned Riley focusses on how the concept of significance can
help us understand this process.
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EuroClio: The 1619 Project: a very European history
August 2019 marked the 400th anniversary of the first arrival
of enslaved Africans on the shores of nowadays United States
(US). In order to shed light on the immense importance of this
occurrence, the New York Times (NYT) produced an issue of
their magazine about the event and its aftermath, the 1619
Project. In this blog post Maayke de Vries reviews the 1619
Project to inspire and encourage European history educators
to teach about the transatlantic slave trade and its lasting
impact.
Akala. Natives. Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire. London:
Two Roads, 2018.
Elliot, Mary, and Jazmine Hughes. “Four hundred years after
enslaved Africans were first brought to Virginia, most Americans still don’t know the full story of
slavery” The New York Times Magazine, 14 Augusts,
2019, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/19/magazine/history-slavery-smithsonian.html.
Guasco, Micheal. “The Fallacy of 1619: Rethinking the History of Africans in Early America”, Black
Perspectives, 4 September 2017, https://www.aaihs.org/the-fallacy-of-1619-rethinking-the-history-
of-africans-in-early-america/
De Vries, Maayke. “A Narrative Inquiry: The Lived School Experiences of Racially Marginalized
Students at a Middle School in Norway”. Utrecht University: Master Thesis.
DOI:10.13140/RG.2.2.25308.54405
Jensen, L. “Provincalising Scandinavia”. Kult, vol. 7, 2010, p. 7-21.
OECD. “Understanding the Socio-Economic divide in Europe” Centre for Opportunity and Equality,
2017, https://www.oecd.org/els/soc/cope-divide-europe-2017-background-report.pdf
Teaching the Ends of Empires
In early November 2017, the Bronbeek Museum hosted a day-long conference, sponsored by the
National 4/5 May Committee of the Netherlands on how to teach decolonisation in former
empires. Ethan Mark, a modern Asia historian from Leiden University, was there and shared the
following insights with EuroClio highlighting the themes and outcomes of the day.
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9. An introduction to Decolonising the History Curriculum
Below you can find a selection of online resources and lesson plans that you can integrate into
your classroom relating to decolonising the curriculum. There resources were shared originally in
EuroClio’s article: An Introduction to Decolonising the History Curriculum
Resources in English
● Zinned Project
○ The Zinn Education Project promotes and supports the teaching of people’s
history. They offer a wide variety of teaching materials, and have a good search
function to filter by time period, theme, or keyword. Registration is free but
required to access the teaching materials.
● Bangla Stories teaching strategies.
○ Bangla Stories aims to help educators introduce students to ideas of identity,
multiple identities and meaning, to highlight the relationship between individual
and group identities and to encourage young people to explore aspects of their
own lives that contribute to their identity.
● Facing History's Educator Resources
○ Facing History’s resources address racism, antisemitism, and prejudice at pivotal
moments in history. Their online resource collection includes primary sources,
videos, teaching strategies, lesson plans, and full units. Good search function
which clearly labels the type of resource it is.
● Teach Native Histories - Lesson Plans
○ The primary focus of this website is on developing curriculum resources for the
United States, but its extensive lesson plan list offers inspiration for new methods
as well as content for history education.
● Teaching Black British History: A Teacher Training Guide
○ Discover how to best teach and embed Black British history into the national
school curriculum with this informative course. From pedagogy in the classroom
to the history of ethnocratic and eurocentric narratives, this comprehensive, three-
week course equips you with all the tools you need in order to best teach and
embed Black British history into your school curriculum.
● The 1619 Project Curriculum
○ The 1619 Project is a challenge to reframe United States’ history by marking the
year when the first enslaved Africans arrived on Virginia soil as the USA’s
foundational date. It offers eleven free full lesson plans relating to this topic.
● Learning Resources — The Black Curriculum
○ A social enterprise that aims to deliver black British history all across the UK. Offer
short lesson plans based on eight topics, supported by a video. Lesson plans are
geared towards England’s groups of Key Stage 2 (ages 7-11) and Key Stage 3 (ages
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11-14). Also can be booked for virtual and in-person lessons, teacher training, and
assemblies.
● Critical Analysis: Apesh*t Music Video
○ Full lesson plan centred on a critical analysis of the music video “Apesh**t”, The
Carters (Beyonce and Jay-Z) and the underrepresentation or misrepresentation of
black people in museums.
● The Decolonization Group: Practices & Techniques In Decolonizing Teaching, A Short
Guide
○ Eight-page PDF that summarizes the discussion at an October 2020 seminar. Offers
classroom level examples and perspectives, and lists sources of further reading.
Available in English and Dutch.
● Historiana webinar - Colonies' Contributions to WW1
○ EuroClio webinar conducted in February 2021. Highlights reasons for teaching
colonies’ contributions to WW1 and how to teach Historical Perspective-Taking
(HPT). It also presents an e-learning activity using Historiana resources. You can
read the article about the webinar here
● Decolonising the curriculum one step at a time: lessons on race in the early British Empire
○ In this blogpost, Jen Thornton, Head of History at Loreto Grammar School, shares
her recent work to improve the history curriculum. Jen started by listening to
students, she has gone back to the scholarship to gain the knowledge she needs,
she has consulted and worked with colleagues, and she is clear that this is work in
progress. Her description of this work and her generous sharing of resources will
be encouraging and helpful to colleagues planning to make changes too.
● Richard Kennett's YouTube channel
○ Richard Kennett is a specialist leader of education in History and head of History at
Redland Green School in Bristol. In his YouTube channel, he offers various video
resources on topics such as slavery and the Holocaust.
● Native Land
○ Interactive map of indigenous groups. It predominantly focuses on the Americas,
but it also lists some groups in Northern Europe.
● #PastFwd: "Do Students know what race is? Do we? Does it matter?"
○ Alistair Dickins makes a very compelling argument on the importance of people's
understanding of the concept of "race" and its actual meaning before engaging
with racism, slavery and discrimination in history.
● Decolonising Europe: Decolonising the curriculum
○ Online lecture of the ACES (Amsterdam Centre for European Studies) on
Decolonising Europe in International Politics. The focus of the discussion is on the
practical applications of decolonial theories: how to decolonize the curriculum in
practice, and how to apply a decolonial approach to our teaching and researching.
● Unsettling Knowledge Podcast
○ The Decolonisation Group at Utrecht University: From the Dutch ‘rijsttafel’ to
contested street names, from the Eurovision Song Contest to sports and racism,
17Decolonising History – Thematic Month Resource Booklet
the new "Unsettling Knowledge" podcast reflects on how empire and colonization
have shaped contemporary society and culture. Hosted by the Decolonisation
group at Utrecht University.
● The Uprising – Documentary
○ Musician and activist Pravini Baboeram presents “The Uprising”, a music
documentary that tells the story of resistance against racism in Europe. With
commentary and experiences from academics and activists, the Dutch-Indian
singer/songwriter offers a decolonial perspective on the anti-racism movement in
the Netherlands, UK and France
● Indigenizing the Teaching of North American History: A Panel Discussion
○ In late-October, Active History editor Thomas Peace met with Marie Battiste, Alan
Corbiere, and Sarah Nickel to discuss decolonization and Indigenization in the
teaching of North American history. Over the course of an hour, the conversation
explored the meaning of decolonization, Indigenizing the academy, Indigenous
resurgence in the Indigenizing of history, assessed specific anticolonial strategies
for affecting change in the discipline, and provided advice for history teachers and
professors about how to change pedagogies and curriculum.
Resources in Dutch
● International Institute of Social History
○ Teaching material: History of slavery in Asia under the VOC
○ Teaching material: The history of forced labor in the Dutch East Indies
• Dutch National Archives
o Slavernijverleden Important archives on slavery have been digitised over the past
years by the National Archives of the Netherlands. On this page, visitors can access
the 1.9 million scans that have become available so far from institutions in the
Netherlands, England, Guyana and Suriname.
• Tropen Museum in Amsterdam
○ Untill July 2021, the Topen Museum in Amsterdam hosts interactive programmes -
Present of the slavery past - for high school students, they also provide teaching
material
○ In collaboration with other museums the Tropen Museum has also created a
glossary: Words Matter: An unfinished guide to Word Choices in the Cultural
Sector. Tropenmuseum, Afrika Museum, Museum Volkenkunde and World Museum.
● Teaching material slavery past
○ A joint initiative from Netwerk Slavernijverleden, platform Educatie and the
National Institute of Dutch Slavery past and heritage (NiNsee), the website is solely
dedicated to teaching material relating to slavery
● Klascement
○ Klascement is a Belgian platform in which teachers can publish their own material.
On their website you can find a wide range of content among which slavery,
colonialism and Leopold II
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● The Black Archives
○ The Black Archives is a unique historical archive where people can go for inspiring
conversations, substantive activities and books from black and other perspectives
that are often underexposed elsewhere.
● Zwart Manifest
○ This manifesto is the initiative of individuals and organizations that fight anti-black
racism and thus promote Black emancipation. This Black Manifesto is there on the
one hand to provide final responsibilities with a concrete action plan and on the
other hand to provide Black people and stakeholders with tools to put items on
the agenda and monitor them.
• Doremixmax
o A complete education kit on slavery and music from the Royal Tropical Museum
Amsterdam (In Dutch and Portuguese).
• Slavernij en jij
o Website (Dutch) designed by The National Institute for the Study of Dutch Slavery
and its Legacy (NiNsee).
Resources in French
● Académie de Strasbourg
○ Renaud Weisse, Professor at Stanislas de Wissembourg, gives a practical example
of how to teach Colonisation et décolonisation and other teaching material in the
Ressources Pédagogiques section (in French)
● Fondation pour la Mémoire de l'Esclavage
○ The mission of the foundation is to help young people understand how the France
of today is: they offer a set of resources and tools to educate about the complex
history of slavery in France.
Resources in Italian
● La Scuola Oltre la Siepe - KIT DIDATTICO per superare i pregiudizi con Harper Lee
○ “La scuola oltre la Siepe” is a project by Il Razzismo è una brutta storia, an Italian
association whose aim is to combat racism and discriminations through cultural
initiatives and educational projects. The project is an educational project for
teachers and educators inspired by Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird that
aims to promote inclusive education and multiperspectivity. Direct link to the
Toolkit, to the Teaching and Learning Strategies document, DecolonizeEducation
sources.
● I kit didattici
○ Toolkits provided by ‘Polo del ‘900’ on controversial issues (migration,
remembrance education, fascism) to develop pupils’ critical thinking skills
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Resources in Portuguese
• Doremixmax
o A complete education kit on slavery and music from the Royal Tropical Museum
Amsterdam (In Dutch and Portuguese)
• Historia Geral de Cabo Verde (Shared by M.G. Balla; in Portuguese)
o Based on documentary evidence from Portugal, three books came forth of a study
of the history of Cabo Verde. The initiative was considered an attempt to reconcile
relations between the former colonial power and Cape Verde.
Resources in other languages
● House of European History
○ The museum is based at the EU parliament in Brussels, and four lesson plans relate
to their permanent exhibitions. The lesson plans are made to connect the teaching
of European history to the contemporary world. Available in all 24 EU languages.
● Samer.se/skola
○ Lesson plans on Sápmi and the Sami people (in Swedish)
● Reaidu
○ A website for teacher students on the history, language and culture of Sápmi and
the Sami people and how to use it in the Norwegian curriculum by the The
University of Tromsø – The Arctic University of Norway (in Norwegian)
● Oktavuohta
○ A material bank for teachings students about The Sámi people, their history and
culture (in Finnish)
● Romani culture
○ Lesson plans for three 45-minute lessons on the topics of Romani culture and
history by the Finnish National Agency for Education (in Finnish)
Relevant initiatives
• Independence, Decolonization, Violence and War in Indonesia, 1945-1950
o Independence, Decolonization, Violence and War in Indonesia, 1945-1950 is a joint
research programme of the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and
Caribbean Studies (KITLV), the Netherlands Institute of Military History (NIMH) and
the NIOD, Netherlands Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
• Racial Justice Network UK
o The West Yorkshire Racial Justice Network brings together individuals,
communities and organisations from across the region to proactively promote
racial justice “holistic economic spiritual and cultural repairs to end racial injustice
and address legacies of colonialism”
• Kids of Colour
o A platform for young people of colour to explore race, identity and culture and
challenge the everyday, institutionalised racism that shapes their lives
20Decolonising History – Thematic Month Resource Booklet
• Justice 2 History
o Justice to History is an educational consultancy focusing on the work of secondary
schools both nationally in the UK and globally in North America, South Africa and
anywhere where educators are keen to transform their students’ learning.
Additional reading
• Amanda Behm, Christienna Fryar, Emma Hunter, Elisabeth Leake, Su Lin Lewis, Sarah
Miller-Davenport, Decolonizing History: Enquiry and Practice, History Workshop Journal,
Volume 89, Spring 2020, Pages 169–191
• Halter, Marilyn. Between race and ethnicity: Cape Verdean American immigrants, 1860-1965.
Vol. 43. University of Illinois Press, 1993. (Shared by M.G. Balla)
• Rollock, Nicola. Complementing Teachers: a practical guide to promoting race equality in
schools. Runnymede Trust and Letts Education, 2003.
• Sangera, Sathnam (2021). Empireland: How Imperialism has shaped Modern Britain.
Penguin Random House UK.
• Stephan Klein (2017) Preparing to Teach a Slavery Past: History Teachers and Educators as
Navigators of Historical Distance, Theory & Research in Social Education, 45:1, 75-109, DOI:
10.1080/00933104.2016.1213677
• Waite, Cally L., and Margaret Smith Crocco. Fighting injustice through education. History of
education 33, no. 5 (2004): 573-583.
• Young, Alden. Do we need to decolonise history? And if so, how? HistoryExtra.
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