Teaching Slavery in Scotland

Historians from the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh are working with teachers and historians elsewhere to build a network to develop history teaching in Scotland about Atlantic slavery and Black history.

Folk art model of a slave ship on stand from the National Museum of African American History and Culture. — A model of a slave ship made by an unknown artist in the first half of the 20th century. Lined along the lower deck are carved ivory figures painted or stained black representing a cargo of enslaved people.

Residential knowledge exchange weekend

We held a residential knowledge exchange weekend in September 2022 teachers working in Scottish secondary schools designed to establish, support and sustain a network to improve the teaching of the histories of slavery, empire and race in Scotland. The teachers worked through academic year 2022-23 to produce teaching resources, which will soon be published in collaboration with the Scottish Association of Teachers of History. We will be announcing a 2023-24 version of the training programme soon.

Details

The 2022 training weekend was developed by a small group of interested teachers, anti-racism activists, and academics, in collaboration with the Scottish Association of Teachers of History. The intention was to develop a broad network of teachers across different areas of Scotland with a particular interest in teaching the history of slavery. The aim of the network is to support each other in producing new resources which are grounded in anti-racist pedagogies, to allow easier access to the latest academic research in the history of slavery, and to evaluate and improve teaching techniques in this area.

The core team who developed this project are:

Professor Diana Paton, William Robertson Professor of History, University of Edinburgh, and Director of the Edinburgh Centre for Global History
Dr Peggy Brunache, Lecturer in the History of Atlantic slavery, University of Glasgow, and Director of the Beniba Centre for Slavery studies
Dr Joe Smith, Lecturer in Edinburgh, University of Stirling
Ms Katie Hunter, History teacher, St Thomas of Aquin's Roman Catholic secondary school, Edinburgh
Ms Lisa Williams, Writer, educator, and founder of the Edinburgh Caribbean Association and of Edinburgh’s Black History Walks

The residential weekend also featured presentations and workshops with other Scotland-based historians of slavery: Dr Shantel George, Dr Marisa Wilson, Alison Clark, Linsey McMillan, Dr Jelmer Vos and Dr Christine Whyte.

The weekend included sessions on: anti-racist principles and practice in teaching slavery; gender relations and women’s experience in Caribbean slavery; slavery and Scotland’s economy and society; Caribbean foodways and slavery; the impact of Atlantic slavery on African societies. Each session was co-led by selected academics with Lisa Williams or Katie Hunter. The team provided support subsequent to the weekend to help participants develop and share relevant resources and reflections on practice. We held events in February and March 2023 in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee and Inverness to publicise the resources in development. Dr Joe Smith surveyed and followed up with participants to evaluate impact on teaching.

The project was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council via its Impact Acceleration Account. A further development of the project is planned for 2023-24; more details will be announced shortly. For further information please contact Diana Paton diana.paton@ed.ac.uk.

This article was published on 18 Sep, 2023