Year 8 pupils take part in Global Curriculum Project

Some of our Year 8 pupils have had the opportunity  to take part in a Global Curriculum pilot project, part of a collaboration with Dr Rob Power of LSE, founder of Powerful Histories.

With their History teacher, Dr Clark, they have been learning about the history and culture of North America from the perspective of indigenous peoples. The broader aim has been to explore ways of globalising the curriculum, breaking down distinctions between disciplines, and centring non-western voices. Students have been encouraged to view indigenous peoples as representatives of living cultures, moving away from narratives focused only on victimhood and trauma to celebrate indigenous ways of living and to learn from indigenous ideas about nature, community and belonging.

Dr Power joined the class at the end of the Spring term and set the students a challenge. Over the next few weeks they will be working to curate virtual museums to showcase indigenous culture and history. These will then be shared with Professor Coll Thrush, an expert in indigenous history at the University of British Columbia in Canada. Professor Thrush will be providing students with feedback on their work and awarding prizes for the best museums. We are very excited to see what they come up with!

Our pupils Kit, Ananya, Henry and Julia, said the following after Dr Power’s visit:

“I really enjoyed working on our indigenous American exhibitions last week…it opened our minds on the subject and we cannot wait to work on the main museum!”

“I have found learning about indigenous people extremely interesting . We learnt a lot through the interviews of the indigenous people, and I think it was necessary to see their history from their perspective to understand it.”

“Studying the Native Indians in the global learning pilot offered an engaging and insightful way to explore indigenous American life.  In particular, learning about their beliefs around the connection with nature and land and its representation of the past and their ancestry stood out to me.”

“It has been both stimulating and thought provoking to learn about native American history from a different point of view this term.”

Author: Karen Dove