Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programme

The HA Conference is a unique opportunity to join the history education community on a weekend of supportive and subject-specific professional learning and development. In the Initial Teacher Education pathway, you can attend workshops exploring new ideas and approaches in the training and mentoring of history teachers. 

Where a session has been identified by the presenter(s) as suitable for multiple key stages, particular areas of focus are indicated in bold.

Inclusive practice in history ITE: removing barriers to help beginning history teachers to thrive

Victoria Crooks
University of Nottingham
Laura London
University of East Anglia, Norwich 

We all know that history is an absolute gem of a subject, but we also know that it has its own unique challenges, not only for pupils but for novice history teachers too. Over the past ten years, we have become more aware of the increasingly complex additional needs experienced by our beginning teachers. This session is based around what our cohorts have taught us about what inclusive practice really means for adult learners. We will explore how we have each sought to adapt our history ITE curriculum by adopting more inclusive pedagogies and meeting the needs of individual ITE students. We will outline practical strategies for removing barriers and supporting all new history teachers to thrive – not just survive – in the classroom. 

Learning outcomes 

  • Delegates will leave with practical strategies for removing barriers and supporting all new history teachers to thrive. 

Friday, Session 1: 10:45–11:45 

Suitable for: teacher educator/mentor, senior leader, history subject leader 

Learning through liminality: supporting trainee teachers to develop autonomy by embracing complexity

Alex Ford
Leeds Trinity University; Schools History Project 

Training to be a teacher in England is a challenging experience. Trainee teachers often struggle to integrate learning across contexts and struggle to develop their own teacher identity while being pulled between different poles of authority. The DfE’s current approach to ITE implies that this complexity can be overcome by reducing teacher education to a simple process of training and repeated practice. This workshop starts from the position that trainees exist in uncomfortable, liminal spaces, through which they tend to want to pass as quickly as possible. This workshop argues that liminality is an important state for growth, which needs exploring throughout a teacher’s career.

Learning outcomes 

  • The workshop will provide a framework for understanding trainee liminality.
  • It will offer a space in which to discuss the challenges of liminality in ITE.
  • Delegates will explore one university’s approach to encouraging trainee teachers to embrace their liminality as a means of professional growth.

Friday, Session 2: 12:00–13:00 

Suitable for: teacher educator/mentor, post-16, early career teacher 

Building historical thinking for generalist primary teachers

Jennifer Huntsley, Stephanie Jach
York St John University 

Following the 2025 Curriculum and Assessment Review, we consider how ITE might support generalist primary student teachers to develop secure substantive and disciplinary knowledge, in terms of both content and pedagogy. Our recent work has seen us outline these aspects of primary history more explicitly in our university-based teaching. This workshop discusses how we have developed our curriculum, alongside primary student teachers’ perspectives and its impact on their historical thinking and practice. 

Learning outcomes 

  • Participants will understand how to support generalist primary teachers to develop their own and their pupils’ substantive knowledge and historical thinking. 
  • Participants will explore a range of subject-specific teaching strategies for primary history. 
  • Participants will consider new directions for primary history and ITE in light of the 2025 Curriculum and Assessment Review.  

Friday, Session 3: 14:00–15:00 

Suitable for: Key Stage 1, Key Stage 2 | teacher educator/mentor, trainee teacher, early career teacher, classroom teacher, history subject leader, senior leader 

How can new history teachers learn to plan effectively when all the planning has been done?

Katharine Burn, Jim Carroll
University of Oxford 

One standard expected of all new history teachers is the ability to ‘plan and teach well-structured lessons’. Yet there is often little scope in school to learn how to do so, given the high levels of centralised planning, intended to reduce teachers’ workload and guarantee the quality of students’ classroom experience. Drawing on interviews and questionnaire responses from senior leaders and HoDs, as well as beginning teachers themselves, this workshop will explore the question of what constitutes an appropriate expectation of newly qualified teachers.

Learning outcomes

  • Participants will examine the critical role that learning to plan plays in learning to teach, by making explicit the different kinds of decision that all teachers need to make.
  • The workshop will then explore a range of strategies through which new entrants to the profession can develop the essential knowledge and understanding that they need – both to interpret existing lesson plans effectively and to create their own.

Saturday, Session 1: 11:00–12:00 

Suitable for: Key Stage 3, Key Stage 4, post-16 | teacher educator/mentor, trainee teacher, classroom teacher, history subject leader, senior leader 

Mentoring as a lever for subject-specific professional learning

Victoria Crooks
University of Nottingham 

Laura London
University of East Anglia, Norwich 

Drawing on the research findings from a case study of three subject-specific partnerships, the presentation will outline the potential of mentoring for stimulating history mentors’ continued subject-specific learning. It will also delve into the role of mentoring for promoting mentors’ engagement with professional learning communities. We will present a framework for investigating the opportunities inherent in mentoring. The framework provides a valuable insight for ITE stakeholders seeking to identify and evaluate effective mechanisms for supporting the subject-specific professional learning of teacher mentors.

Learning outcomes 

  • We will present a framework for investigating the opportunities inherent in mentoring.

Saturday, Session 2: 12:15–13:15 

Suitable for: teacher educator/mentor, senior leader, history subject leader, classroom teacher 

Virtual Museum: introducing the discipline of history to student teachers via personal artefacts

Gabrielle Rowles, Emma Johnson
University of Brighton 

Beginning any history course is an opportunity to generate a sense of belonging, as well as a chance to explore disciplinary concepts. This session explores the role of the Virtual Museum to (re)acquaint student teachers with discourses about the nature of history, decolonised history and the role of museums, as well as to get to know each other. Used with primary and secondary trainees, the Virtual Museum can be translated into a Key Stage 2 or 3 classroom to introduce pupils in the same way.

Learning outcomes 

  • The session will consider how disciplinary concepts can be explored with student teachers using the Virtual Museum activity.
  • Delegates will learn to be confident with the process of using digital history in ITE, Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3.
  • The session will generate cross-curricular discussions between primary and secondary colleagues.

Saturday, Session 3: 14:15–15:15 

Suitable for: Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3 | teacher educator/mentor, classroom teacher, history subject leader, trainee teacher, early career teacher