Written by Meena Wood
Meena Kumari Wood is a former HMI (Ofsted), LA Adviser, FE College Principal and Principal of a Secondary Academy, is now a consultant, trainer and leadership coach across the British and International Education sectors.
Original article published in Teach Secondary – Issue 15.6 September 2026
The government’s recent curriculum review presents a golden opportunity for teachers to tackle some pernicious myths while highlighting the value of active citizenship, writes Meena Wood…“The teaching of history through sourced evidence shouldn’t amount to a binary choice of ‘good versus evil’”.
Some 40% of children sitting in classrooms in the UK are from heritages other than White British. We should be empowering our young people to be truly proud of their individual and collective heritages, and the contributions they make to society.
But if children can’t identify themselves within the historical narratives they’re given, how can we hope to create a diverse and cohesive society?
Lasting legacies
Up to now, generations of young people have been taught that Britain was an intrinsic force for good against Nazi tyranny, and ‘saved the world’ in both World Wars. But how many have also learnt that Churchill’s victory also contributed to the committing of atrocities across the Indian Empire?
As Shashi Tharoor observed in his 2017 book, Inglorious Empire, the great Bengal famine of 1943 resulted in the deaths of millions, as rice was exported to feed the Empire’s troops. Churchill, however, attributed the famine to the fact that Indians were “Breeding like rabbits”.
While learning about the history of the British Empire, are students being made aware of the lasting legacies of those employed by the East India Company? Of how certain employees ‘acquired’ riches and subsequently invested them in some of Britain’s finest buildings, and even the de facto ‘purchase’ of a Parliamentary seat? Thomas Pitt, for one, famously founded a Prime Ministerial dynasty (William Pitt, followed by his son) via the purchase of a diamond whilst he was Governor of India.
No statutory requirement to teach British Imperial history currently exists within the National Curriculum. When selecting their GCSE syllabi, schools may therefore be reluctant to opt for the relatively new ‘Migration’ option, due to the complex perspectives involved and relative scarcity of supporting resources.
A binary narrative
Yet the fact remains that the teaching of history really should present a balanced view of colonisation, the British Empire and their impact on peoples from Africa, Asia and Ireland. As Wendy Williams noted in her 2018 review of The Windrush scandal, it was “In part able to happen because of the public’s and officials’ poor understanding of Britain’s colonial history, the history of inward and outward migration, and the history of black Britons.” (see tinyurl.com/ts156-H1).
We can also look to the entrenched binary narrative that surrounds the enslaving of Black Africans by Whites, when the reality was more complex and nuanced. My own birthplace of Zanzibar became (in)famous for its clove plantations, and slavery practised there from the 17th to the 20th century. There are records of Africans sold into chattel by their own tribal chiefs to Arab Traders, for whom Zanzibar served as a key East African trading hub. Slaves were held at Prison Island, worked on plantations there or were transported to other destinations.
The teaching of history through sourced evidence shouldn’t amount to a binary choice of ‘good versus evil’, if only because the selection of that ‘sourced evidence’ will decide the narrative our students end up learning. The presence of different perspectives has to be a feature of history. Otherwise, immutable, unforgiving and often incomplete historical interpretations can persist as intergenerational legacies.
A sense of belonging
More broadly, our children need to see for themselves how our collective history is a multi-faceted prism that continues to have considerable influence over how we live our lives today.
Citizenship, history and geography lessons can and should enable students to learn about the historical unity of European nations when it came to fighting tyranny and fascism alongside the ANZAC, African and Asian troops, the factors that eventually led to the establishment of the EU and the continuing relevance of those factors to today’s ongoing debates over Brexit and migration, among many other issues.
The citizenship curriculum should reference why voting is of paramount importance within a democracy, because it’s only through exploring their identities and communities that children can develop a genuine sense of belonging, pride and active citizenship that will see them supporting efforts towards equality and cohesion.
Perpetuating a polarised view of British history risks creating schisms in our society and a rise in xenophobia towards migrants. These are counter to young people developing global citizenship. The relevance of migration to children’s lives today is perhaps more tangible now than it ever has been, and was especially visible during the 2026 World Cup – a football tournament in which 80% of the England team (and its three highest-scoring players) were of Black or dual heritage.
Approaches that resonate
Young people will further benefit from acquiring the critical literacy and thinking skills needed to thoughtfully question what they see and read, and develop the curiosity to explore topics more deeply.
The Finnish education model, in which critical thinking is embedded across the curriculum, encourages students to hone their research skills, weigh up evidence, understand biases, navigate persuasive arguments and substantiate their conclusions. Only as critical readers will British children be able to understand for themselves the true, multi-faceted legacy of the British Empire when presented with source evidence.
Adopting fresh approaches to the teaching of certain subjects may also simply resonate with children in a more positive way. For instance, learning that the Moghul Empire – and the economic expansion it enabled – lasted in India for 330 years until its dissolution in 1857 by Queen Victoria raises some interesting questions.
Katie Llewellyn is a lead practitioner in Humanities and Social Sciences at Hatch End High School in Harrow. In her telling argument, taking a ‘revisionist view’ when tackling sensitive topics could involve : “Here’s how a topic has been taught. Does this meet current expectations? Is the 1857 ‘Indian Mutiny’ an uprising against political and economic oppression, or even a War of Independence?
“Students love to argue their perspective and reach their own conclusions. Teaching history in this way will give rise to a generation of citizens who think for themselves.”
Diverse histories
As educators, we now face the challenge – and opportunity – of radically rethinking our curriculum and what it teaches. The Historical Association, via its work on this year’s South Asian Heritage Month and other such initiatives, has been leading on the history curriculum review, in a way that could eventually see South Asian history accorded equivalent space within the curriculum as African history, Black slavery and Windrush.
As Louisa Dunn and Hannah Cushion of Kensington Palace’s Schools Team point out, “Including the inspiring stories of the Last Princesses of Punjab in the curriculum offers a way into Empire, migration, activism and resistance. As suffragists, their voices are both human and relatable and signpost their important contributions to British society.”
At a more local level, the ‘Hidden Heritages: One School, Many Stories’ initiative aims to assemble an intergenerational oral history project. Students taking part in the project do so as active historians and curators of the South Asian Cambridgeshire community, preserving local histories and heritages, while simultaneously deepening their understanding of British history.
There is also The British Library’s digital ‘South Asians in Britain, 1830s to present’ showcase, which highlights migrants’ contributions to the country over a span of almost 200 years. These diverse histories include the election of the pioneering political leader Dadabhai Naoroji as MP for Finsbury Central in 1892, as well as the life of Noor Inayat Khan – a British-Indian spy during WWII, who died in Dachau concentration camp for refusing to give up her secrets. South Asian Britain: Connecting Histories, a free web resource
The British Library’s Discovering Historical Sources resource additionally gives teachers and students access to a range of expert articles, activities and notes to support the study of migration and empire in English, citizenship, history, politics and sociology lessons.
We should enable all of our children to become more knowledgeable citizens, pursue opportunities to learn about the various facets of their own heritage, and ultimately join the dots from yesteryear to the present day – but we’ll only see those efforts have a lasting impact, when reflected through a balanced and nuanced curriculum.