The strange defeat of the history teacher’s craft?

The last six years have seen enormous conflict over history education in the UK. Central to some of these disagreements has been the nature and purpose of a history education. As a result of these arguments, many history teachers have been forced to change and modify their approaches and practices to meet the latest whims of central reformers. The result has been for history teachers to become divorced from their profession and de-professionalised by constant interference. This paper explores an approach to school history which does not attempt to create a single, homogenised approach for all teachers to follow; suggesting that there might be power in plural approaches, modelled on the traditions of academic history. In this vein, an argument is offered for reconceiving history teaching through the approach of Marc Bloch and the early Annales School as a way to re-engage a generation of history teachers who have witnessed the strange defeat of their profession by politicians and bureaucrats. The implications of this are explored and questions are raised about the implementation of such a vision for history education.