These videos form part of our Key Stage 3 School Resource Packs. They are intended for use by secondary school history teachers and pupils, in conjunction with the other materials in the packs, available soon on this website and on the Historical Association website. In addition to the introductory video, the various videos address themes relating to social change in Britain since 1945 (race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, gender and class, everyday life, disability and SEN, class and community), through the lens of postwar secondary education. Each video features an academic historian discussing interpretations of primary sources linked to their theme, placed in wider context. The videos were created by Dr. Annie Thwaite, SESC’s Public Engagement Coordinator. Our greatest thanks to Dr. Lucy Delap, Satya Gunput, Dr. Natalie Thomlinson, Professor Claire Langhamer, Dr. David Cowan, Amy Gower and Professor Paul Warmington for offering their time and expertise.
Disability & SEN – Dr. Lucy Delap (University of Cambridge)
In this video, Dr. Lucy Delap discusses the ways in which schools reflect changing experiences of and attitudes to disability, the labels attached to schoolchildren in Britain with different mental and physical capacities, and two sources that examine the experiences of disabled school pupils.
Race & ethnicity: British South Asian experiences – Satya Gunput (Birkbeck, University of London)
In this video, Satya Gunput examines what issues South Asian migrants faced when their children went to secondary school in Britain, a visual source of the Southall Black Sisters, extract from Tuku Mukherjee’s The Journey Back (1988), and a video of British South Asian pupils being bussed to school in London in 1976.
Gender & class – Dr. Natalie Thomlinson (University of Reading)
In this video, Dr. Natalie Thomlinson discusses in what ways schools reflect changing experiences of and attitudes to gender and class, asking how boys’ and girls’ secondary education differed in Britain during the second half of the twentieth century, and examining two sources: images of housecraft flats in Sheffield from the 1960s, and oral histories with women from the coalfield communities, from her AHRC-funded project ‘Women and the miners’ strike: Capturing changing gender roles in working-class communities in Britain after 1945’.
Everyday Life – Professor Claire Langhamer (University of Sussex)
In this video, Professor Claire explores how everyday school life reflects change in the United Kingdom since 1945, and what changing role school played in children’s and families’ lies in the decades after the Second World War. Claire examines two sources – a photograph of schoolgirls demonstrating against corporal punishment in 1972, and an extract from the National Child Development Study in 1969, in which children were asked to imagine their futures.
Class & community – Dr. David Cowan (University of Cambridge)
In this video on class and community, Dr David Cowan discusses in what ways social class influenced children’s school experiences and outcomes. He examines two sources – a clip from the documentary Seven Up! (1964), and an extract from Brian Jackson & Dennis Marsden’s Education and the Working Class (1962).
Gender & sexuality – Amy Gower (University of Reading)
In this video, Amy Gower talks about the ways in which schools reflect changing experiences of and attitudes to gender and sexuality, and how gender differences and the sexualities of pupils and teachers affected experiences of secondary school in Britain. Amy looks at two sources: a Cheltenham & Gloucester advert from The Sunday Telegraph in 1977 depicting a schoolgirl, and an extract from Jenny Lives With Eric and Martin (1983).
Race & ethnicity: Black British experiences – classroom version – Professor Paul Warmington (University of Warwick)
In this video, Professor Paul Warmington discusses Black British experiences of secondary education since 1945. He examines two sources – a posted advertising Bernard Coard’s How the West Indian Child Is Made Educationally Sub-normal in the British School System (1971), and an image of an anti-banding campaign in Haringey.
Race & ethnicity: Black British experiences – extended version – Professor Paul Warmington (University of Warwick)
This video is an extended version of the above film, in which Professor Paul Warmington offers context around Black British experiences with secondary education since 1945.