History Teaching and Philosophy of History

It would probably be fair to say that most history teachers in Britain still regard philosophy of history (if they give it a thought) as an alien, even pretentious, activity, irrelevant to their practical concerns. This is partly explained by attitude shown toward philosophy of history by many professional historians in universities, which is characteristically a mixture of condescension and suspicion; and it partly derives from fact that teachers in under-resourced British school system have little time for reflection. In circumstances it is not surprising that there is a long tradition that teaching history is self-evidently handing on to children in simplified form whatever account of past (or of certain passages of it) has been given by professional historians. The assumptions upon which such a view rests are by no means necessarily naive and incoherent, but they are often unexamined by those who make them. The practices which this tradition has supported have included some intelligent and inspired teaching, but more often have led to children learning historical information rather as one might learn railway timetables or telephone numbers, or (marginally less futile) as one might learn principal products of different nations. This tradition does not go unchallenged. For most of this century there has been a continuous current of opposition to conception of history teaching as imparting the facts, an opposition founded in first instance on an awareness of importance of evidence in history, and on an intuitive appeal to something like good grounds criterion of knowledge. In recent years this kind of view has been strengthened by arguments of Paul Hirst (which elucidate notion of development of mind in terms of acquisition of forms of knowledge) and by claims of Bruner that central ideas, concepts, or fundamentals of a subject may be taught in some honest form at school level. 1 Together these two strands of thought have led to increased interest in nature of history as a discipline, and arguments as to what should or could be taught. Other influences working in same direction have been a