Capturing the latest historical research for use in schools

Work by two distinguished Edinburgh University historians has been the starting point for much of the History curriculum in Scottish secondary schools.

Professor Tom Devine and Professor Ewen Cameron’s research, combined with their ability to make their findings accessible in the classroom, have fundamentally influenced the Higher History curriculum and with it, the understanding of Scottish History among thousands of school pupils.

Highers are the gold standard of secondary school education in Scotland. Nearly 10,000 young people sat Higher History exams in 2012 alone.

Established experts

The professors’ work is particularly apparent in the modules, ‘Migration and Empire, 1830 to 1939’ and ‘Scotland and the Impact of the Great War, 1914 to 1928’ - and for good reason.

Professor Devine’s Scottish Nation and To the Ends of the Earth are among the most widely read texts on modern Scottish history, revealing how mass migration and the administrative and technical activities of missionaries, civil servants and engineers, among others, contributed to the empire.

Professor Cameron’s book, Impaled on a Thistle, treats the Great War in greater depth and wider historical context than ever before, assessing it as a watershed in 20th-century Scottish history.

Linking research to teaching

Interaction between university historians and school teachers was limited until 2009, when a compulsory Scottish history module was introduced to the Higher History curriculum.

Teachers were linked up with researchers to develop course materials. Distinguished academics who could conduct detailed research and relate it in an accessible way were deemed the most useful.

Professor Devine and Professor Cameron were among the historians consulted.

Ongoing benefits

Professor Cameron and Professor Devine have appeared in a series of videos by Learning Teaching Scotland, now Education Scotland, which teachers use on a daily basis. Teachers say that they use these materials regularly and that the ‘talking heads’ have become very familiar to the pupils.

Their research is cited in textbooks for teachers and pupils and extracts from their work have been used as ‘sources’ for analysis in the Higher examination.

In 2012, 12 per cent of fifth or sixth year secondary school pupils took Higher History.