Why the 1916 Rising and formation of the Free State needs to be taught to children in 6 class? Why It is a controversial and emotive topic? The 1916 and foundation of the free state is a th topic that is both controversial and emotive topic th in the history curriculum for 6 class. It is found in the curriculum in the strand Politics, conflict Current debates about why this topic should and should not be taught in primary school are prominent in Ireland. and society and under the strand unit 1916 and the foundation of the state. It is an issue that • This is a topic which there was a large amounts of people involved during those years from all round the country. As our classrooms are deeply divides society in many ways. It can also diverse with a range of children coming from different lives, we do not know what degree their relatives played in the 1916. For example, challenge values and beliefs personally held emphasising on how the people that fought for our country gave us the freedom of the country, can bring up controversial opinions as there were numerous of attacks on the black and tans and innocent civilians during the Easter Rising and The Irish War of Independence. about the 1916. The topic also evokes emotional The children could have ancestors who died in this time which could bring up emotion to children. There can also be children whose responses from the children as they learn about relatives played no part in the freedom or fought in World War 1 for Britain and this may cause them to feel awkward if it is shown in class the lives of the people who died during this time that all fighters won freedom. To prevent this the children need to feel included and by showing them 1916 rising from multiple of and develop empathy for the innocent civilians perspectives for example an Irish man fighting for Britain in World War I, a mother of an innocent civilian who died, a person who plays involved in it. Pedagogical approaches no part in 1916, a black and tan and a soldier from 1916 rising. Looking into the topic from multiple perspectives lets the children feel included and sees it from a range of eyes so there is no bias. • Big picture approaches are a pedagogical approach you can use to teach the children about 1916 and the foundations of the free state. It shows that expanding historical perspectives is crucial for enabling the children • to establish meaningful connections on a local, national, and international scale. It is using these connections that will create an informative overview of the topic. (Reading for a quote). A key pedagogical is historical enquiry. This involves the children creating questions from a range of sources. They can also create questions from different perspectives of people. It involves the children analysing and explaining the evidence found in the historical sources. Historical enquiry also allows the children to partisan communal history. This pedagogy can be used teaching this topic as the children can question from the different perspectives of the Irish fighters, Irish civilians, Irish people in World War I. They can also question from different countries perspectives such as America and England. Discussion and debate is a pedagogical that gives the children the opportunity to discuss with one another about the foundations of the free state. The children can share information they know about their side of the debate and learn more information through the debate. The children share their information and learn from it. Key vocabulary Irish Citizen Army, Guerrilla Warfare, ambushes, irregulars, Black and Tans, Act of Union, the proclamation, Execution and The Easter Rising. 1 This topic led Ireland the independence and freedom that we have today. Teaching of home rule and act of union are to be taught to show the lead up to The 1916 Rising. There was numerous events and fights that happened that led to The 1916 Rising. That is why it is critical to teach 6th class school children about the 1916 rising as it was a key point that made the free state that we live in today. It is a part of everyone’s heritage and needs to be taught to recognize the appreciation we have for the people of Ireland during this time. This also teaches the children about empathy and having empathy for the people. The people who signed the 1916 Proclamation and how they are still commemorated today in Ireland should be taught to show how much these people mean to the country. The teaching of the attack of innocent civilians in Mount Street in Ballsbridge and of the burning of Cork shows how much this violence should never happen again and to show how much people sacrificed in those days to get where we are today. We want to show the students that going back in history and to violence is not the way to go. Specific historical learning is seen throughout this topic. The topic the 1916 rising and the foundations of the free state is a topic that links to the content of historical learning as stated in the curriculum pg. 70 they should ‘engage in simple studies. in which political changes or movements have had an important influence on the lives of people in Ireland. (NCCA, 1999). This is a topic which had the most impact on Ireland in recent years in relation to political change. The topic will consist of the children not looking just at the 1916 but the years leading up to it and the aftermath of it for example The Irish Independence. In relation to the skills and concepts the children have an opportunity to learn, use and develop them through their historical learning. Change and continuity can be seen in relation to looking at how people lived during the 1916 in Ireland and leading up to the foundation of the free state by looking into the lives of the leaders of The 1916 Rising. The concept of empathy will be looked at in relation to the Irish people and how they had a to fight and sacrifice their lives for freedom in their own country. The children will improve on their perspective taking skills as they will take on a range of perspectives when looking at different historical sources. In this topic there is a need for a range of perspectives to be taken in order for the information the children learn to not be biased. We cannot just teach from the perspective of an Irish solider we must include a range of perspectives similar to the one’s names previously in blue. The skill of recognising different perspectives will also be used in relation to them reading different documents and identifying if they think they are biased or not in relation to who wrote it. Teaching about the knowledge of alternative histories and silenced voices allow the children to learn new information that is not commonly know but is a major historical source in the topic. For example learning about the women who partook in the 1916 Rising as there 300 women, apart from Countess Markievcitz their stories are unheard of. Using evidence is a key skill that will be used in this topic as the children will look at the sources provided to create reasons on why certain things happened for example newspaper articles, photos and diary entries from the 1916 rising. Cause and effect are a needed concept for the children because the children can look at what caused the 1916 rising and the effects of it after it happened. The children can learn how the formation of the Free state in 1922 was an effect of the 1916 Rising as well as numerous of other sources. https://irishconstabulary.com/the-black-and-tans-t689.html https://www.rte.ie/centuryireland/index.p hp/articles/women-of-the-rising 2 • The killings and deaths are a major problem on why not to teach it. The teaching needs to stop at a certain point for example where there are no gruesome stories, accidents and deaths taught. Today the talk of war and death may cause upset with the children that have families in war. For example, a Ukrainian child might feel upset about discussing the 1916 Rising as it can bring up horrible memories from them. A solution is for the teacher to discuss with the child’s parents about sticking to the information and less on violence so the child could feel more comfortable in class. https://www.icollec tor.com/item.aspx? i=12435402 3 Source – National museum of Ireland https://www.museum.ie/enIE/CollectionsResearch/Collection/Resilien ce/Artefact/Test-3/fb71e3dc2e95-4406-bc4687d8d6b0ae5d Resources for the sources. 1) Investigate the letter and what they are about. Express opinions. Why would that be said. Compare to todays world. 2) Article written in newspaper. The children will take information from the paper and will investigate what perspective it is written in. How would you feel from an English perspective? 3) Create enquiry questions from it and a debate of the importance of it to Irish people. 4) Investigate how other countries showed it to the world. Take information from it. 5) Create enquiry questions and compare to the job itself. Debate and discuss if it was a job in those years, would you take it. 6) Create enquiry questions from the picture. Place it on a map. Compare and contrast with Dublin today using a Venn diagram. 5 4 https://www.rarenewspapers.com/vie w/653074 Easter Monday after the Easter Rising . 6 Source - National Library of Ireland on The Commons https://www.theirishroadtrip.com/the-1916-easter-rising/ Rationale • I chose this topic because I think it is apart of every students life and heritage as they are a student in Ireland. The events from The 1916 Rising relates to numerous of things we see every day as evidence from the quotation of McCully, ‘past battle from the 17th century onwards, the claim to territory marked by the parading tradition, the iconography associated with historical leaders, the wall murals used to highlight political and paramilitary thems in different communicties’ (McCully.A, 2005). It is part of history teaching in primary level as it teaches the children about how the people of Ireland achieved the Irish Free state which they live in today. To keep it suitable for the primary level I think teaching the children the main information needed that is age appropriate and not too graphic for the children is essential. • I chose these pedagogical approaches because it allows the children to be taught in way where rote learning of facts and text book learning is not included. The big picture approach allows the children to see the historical learning in the context of their own area and world so it makes sense to them which is also connected to the aims of the history curriculum (1999) as fosters ‘sensitivity to the impact of conservation and change within local and wider environments’ (NCCA, 1999). I think it is critical in relation to the curriculum skills of perspectives as the approach ‘is namely to help in the development of larger-scale historical perspectives’ (Hawkey. K, 2015). I agree with the literature as it discusses how history needs to be seen in real life and local example to see the bigger picture. • Historical enquiry is a key pedagogy approach which I think is important when teaching history. It gives the children the opportunity to look for facts, information using the historical sources. It also prevents the use of textbooks which is important because a lot of history textbooks are ‘aimed at promoting their own perspective’ (McCully.A, 2005). • Discussion and debate is a pedagogy which I think will work well with this topic as it allows the children to discuss what they already know and what they have learned. This also suits the topic due to the multiple opinions that people can hold and the different perspectives. This pedagogy encourages the children to learn about different perspectives as they have to know all the sides of the argument which is based on the formation of the free state. This will benefit the children as they will be able to ‘develop an appreciation of the perspectives and motives of people in the past’ (NCCA, 1999). However discussing what the children already know could cause bias as said by Goldberg ‘that many students critical inquiry was clearly influenced by family and community perspectives’ (Goldberg. T & Savenije. G. 2018). However that is why I want to show the children that discussing involves sharing and also listening to others. The children can listen to other stories and information and see if they still from that opinion. • A implication of my advice on the poster is that the teachers will need to be well informed in order to teach the subject. They need to research their own work and be able to set out what the lessons are about before hand in order for it to run in a sequence. I think any major information that is not suitable for the children will need to be removed or changed so it is more age appropriate if it is essential in the learning context. Another implication is that the poster may not be controversial in some places in the country in comparison to teaching it in a school along the border where they themselves have seen and heard signs and stories about the Easter Rising and the troubles. The teacher must then ‘be prepared to injet the controversy into topics which students, due to their own background and life experience, do not see as controversial’ (CDVEC et al. 2020) References • CDVEC Curriculum Development Unit & Professional Development Service for Teachers. (2020). Tackling Controversial Issues in the Citizenship Classroom. A Resource for Citizenship Education. Professional Development Service for Teachers. • Goldberg. Tsafrir & Savenije. Geerte. (2018). Teaching Controversial Historical Issues. The Wiley International Handbook of History Teaching and Learning. University of Haifa & University of Amsterdam. First Edition. Edited by Scott Alan Metzger and Lauren McArthur Harris. Published by John Wiley. • Hawkeye. Kate. (2015). Moving forward, looking back - historical perspective, 'Big History’ and the return of the longue durée. Teaching History; Mar 2015; 158; Social Science Premium Collection pg. 42 • McCully. Alan. (2005). Teaching Controversial Issues in a Divided Society. Learning from Northern Ireland School of Education University of Ulster. • National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA). (1999). History Education Primary Curriculum. Dublin: Government of Ireland Publications.
