History Prof criticises the SQA's Nat 5 history

[WhereAreMyAirpods]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11087005/Scotland-whitewashed-slave-trade-history-exams-says-Professor-Neil-McLennan.html

All very interesting as my first two have both done Nat 5 history over the past few years. Totally agree with Prod McLennan - lots of emphasis on the triangular trade, the role of Liverpool/Bristol. Entire glossing over of Glasgow's role in slavery, or the fact all the cotton/sugar which flooded into the city was on the labour of enslaved people.

But oh no, the SQA is ENTIRELY independent of government influence, isn't it? 🙄

We teach stuff about the tobacco lords and the impact of slavery on Glasgow street names etc as it is important. However, not to defend the SQA (they are horrific), but the unit is a British history unit rather than a Scottish history unit, so should be about Britain as a whole which would include Bristol and Liverpool, as well as Glasgow.

Also, the SQA are not partly funded by the SNP but by the Scottish Government, but facts don’t often get in the way of a Daily Mail story!

Indeed.

In fact, if you look at the National 5 revision materials on BBC Bitesize it contains Glasgow's links to the slave trade/ tobacco.

I did wonder how long it would take someone to link the article here.

Thought I was getting a feeling of deja vu - I can't be arsed reading it, did they manage to remove the lies this time? 🙄

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/scotsnet/4449046-nationalism-destroying-education?reply=114080018

Well aware that it's the "British" element of the curriculum. I think the kids did the home front in WW2 as the Scottish bit, or was it WW1. And that's fine. But you simply can't partition off the slave trade into the "British" section and make it all about Liverpool or Bristol without talking about the wealth which flowed into Glasgow at the time. Glasgow is either the "second city of the Empire" or it's not - they can't have it both ways.

It is lazt reporting to say the SNP and the Scottish government are one and the same but that's splitting hairs really. The SNP and their Greenie pals are the government and decide what our kids get taught and examined upon. I also agree that some amazing history teachers are trying their best to give a rounded education and the whole picture rather than teaching for exams but also understand the pressure on them to get their students the best grades and that means concentrating what is likely to come up on the exam.

Don’t get me started on the Scottish part of the paper. Wallace and Bruce or Mary, Queen of Scots is fine, but only mentioning Scottish regiments, people and battles in WW1 is ludicrous. 😩

I must reiterate though that Glasgow is taught as part of the slave trade and credited in the marking as this screenshot from last year’s N5 paper shows. It is definitely not just Liverpool and Bristol. As @Teach12 says it is in the BBC revision materials and, if I remember rightly, also in the textbook that many schools use.

You are correct though that teaching to the exam takes the joy out of both teaching and learning. That is something which must be fixed when the SQA disband. Their questions are often very narrow and the pedantic marking of source questions is appalling.

DD did Higher History this year and most of her revision was around the technique of answering the "to what extent" or "evaluate the usefulness" questions using the correct structure and buzzwords rather than testing their knowledge and understanding of the topic, and more importantly, how topics link to other areas of history. History is a big interconnected web and looking at one wee aspect of it is tricky. There's no scope for kids to investigate and look at topics independently, there is a project at Adv Higher but not at lower levels.

It's impossible to cover everything. I have massive gaps in my own history background as at Primary school we only ever did Scottish history so I know all about Vikings and Skara Brae and William Wallace, but was taught nothing about the Tudors, English Civil War or Irish Famine. And I'm 2/3 of the way through a history related Masters...