Responding to SHP 2025: Part 1, Arthur Chapman on Narratives

The 2025 Schools History Project (SHP) conference was, as ever, a highlight of the teaching year and a stimulus for all sorts of thoughts.

Inevitably, the best workshops at such an event are those that leave you with more (interesting) questions than answers.

In the following two posts, I’m going to try to formulate some coherent thoughts in relation to two really excellent sessions in particular, both of which sent me away with a number of very interesting questions. The first post, here, discusses Arthur Chapman’s workshop on stories and narratives.

What is a story? This deceptively tricky question lay at the heart of Arthur Chapman’s workshop.

Here, I want to pick up on one issue in particular which was discussed during that workshop. It’s an issue which has prompted a number of very interesting questions and got me thinking again about stories, narratives, and arguments.

That issue is: narratives as historical interpretation.

Language and Substantive Concepts: Part 3 – Turning Students into Sceptics

This is the third of a three-part post focusing on what I term, following Caroline Coffin, the “language of history” and substantive concepts.

After the first post set out a broad theoretical framework, and the second post proposed approaches to foreign-language terms as substantive concepts, this post argues that we should aim not just to teach students to use substantive concepts but also to question and critique them.

I’ll be presenting on this topic with colleagues at the upcoming Schools History Project (SHP) conference in Leeds in July 2025, so this is also a first attempt to set out and develop a broad methodological approach to this work.

Questions, comments, and criticisms are very much welcome!

 

George Orwell once argued, “The worst thing one can do with words is to surrender to them.” If language is there "for expressing and not for concealing or preventing thought, let the meaning choose the word, not the other way about." (Orwell, quoted by Brubaker and Cooper, 2000)

Accepting uncritically the words others give us is to surrender to them. It means us and our world being defined by others in their terms. Mastering and manipulating words to our own ends means we can define ourselves and our world in our own terms.

In that case, words in the classroom hold enormous power. They give us, the teachers choosing the words and how to use them, power. They can also give our students, if they can master those words for themselves, power.

In relation to substantive concepts – those weighty conceptual terms we use to group together different phenomena the past – we have a responsibility to not just teach our students concepts, but also to invite them to question and critique those concepts.

The Night Before: Last Minute Tips for AQA Paper 1H (23 May 2025)

The night before the exam... A room full of nervous students. What advice to you give?

It’s tempting to “throw the kitchen sink” and bombard students with everything they could possibly need to know. But at this late stage, I don’t think there’s much to be gained from this – what knowledge they have now is basically what they’ll have tomorrow morning, and anything else they might want to recap and revise they’ll be much better doing at home by themselves (or, preferably, they’ll get an early night and good sleep).

I’m also not a fan of predictions. It’s a serious risk that trying to second-guess the exam writers will send students off on the wrong scent.

Instead, I’ll suggest here a more targeted, concepts- and skills-focused approach. The brief resource to accompany this can be found here.

 

Language and Substantive Concepts: Part 2 – Speaking in Tongues

This is the second of a three-part post focusing on what I term, following Caroline Coffin, the “language of history” and substantive concepts.

After the first post set out a broad theoretical framework, this post aims to set out an approach to teaching a specific sub-category of substantive concepts: foreign-language terms.

I’ll be presenting on this topic with colleagues at the upcoming Schools History Project (SHP) conference in Leeds in July 2025, so this is also a first attempt to set out and develop a broad methodological approach to this work.

Questions, comments, and criticisms are very much welcome!

 

Language and Substantive Concepts: Part 1 – Weighty Conceptual Terms

This is the first of a three-part post focusing on what I term, following Caroline Coffin, the “language of history” and substantive concepts.

It aims to set out an approach to teaching substantive concepts by explicitly engaging with the linguistic structures of the historical discipline. I’ll be presenting on this topic with colleagues at the upcoming Schools History Project (SHP) conference in Leeds in July 2025, so this is also a first attempt to set out and develop a broad methodological approach to this work.

Questions, comments, and criticisms are very much welcome!