Reading Racism or Representation?: History books for primary school students

History has long been an important part of the British school curriculum, and the British Empire calcified not only what history mattered, but what young readers should learn from it.  Britishness and British Values continue to be a part of history books aimed at the educational market, but how do these books address issues of race, racism, and who belongs in Britain? What have British educational texts historically taught about racialised minorities, inclusion, and/or anti-racism, and how have modern-day history texts changed or remained the same?  After a brief opening lecture on types of historical texts used with children, participants will explore examples of two different types of history texts for young readers: The Heroic Figure, and the Sweeping Historical Overview, to determine how (or if) Britishness, British values, and ideas about inclusion have changed over time.

Professor Karen Sands-O’Connor is a visiting professor in the school of education at the University of Sheffield. An internationally-recognised expert on Black British children’s literature, she works with national organisations, including the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE), the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) and the British Library on issues of diversity. In 2022, she created the UK’s first major exhibition on children’s books and Black Britain, Listen to This Story!, which opened in Newcastle and is currently touring the UK. Her publications include British Activist Authors Addressing Children of Colour (Bloomsbury 2022), winner of the Children’s Literature Association Honor Book Award. She contributes to the CLPE’s Reflecting Realities reports and is developing a study centre in Diverse Children’s Literature. She was British Academy Global Professor of Children’s Literature between 2019-24 and spent a year as a Leverhulme Fellow working with the UK’s National Centre for Children’s Books, Seven Stories.