School curriculum reform and the Scottish War of Independence: a collaboration between Education Scotland and the University of Glasgow

Education Scotland is the Scottish Government agency responsible for supporting and monitoring teaching in Scottish schools. This collaboration aims to transform Education Scotland's material for teachers and learners on a pivotal period of Scottish History, between Edward I of England's conquest of Scotland in 1296 and Robert Bruce's victory at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. Over 90 % of schoolchildren in Scotland study this topic by age 15.

Education Scotland is keen to develop an approach that will advance the reform of the curriculum introduced in Scotland in 2010. Flexibility is at the heart of this reform, allowing teachers to choose material that is most relevant to the learners in their care. The full potential of this new approach can only be achieved by providing appropriate resources across all levels of schooling. Nothing like this is currently available for the Scottish War of Independence.

Education Scotland has recognised that the 'People of Medieval Scotland' database (www.poms.ac.uk), a major outcome of a recent AHRC-funded project (see below), has the potential to be used to create resources on a sufficient scale to transform the teaching of the Scottish War of Independence from early years to age 15. As a result, learners and teachers across the country will be able to view the topic through a range of perspectives, rather than being restricted to the well worn narrative of Wallace and Bruce and their battles. The aim is to give learners and teachers access to information on scores of individuals or groups during the War. This will allow them to explore the War through their own local perspective, and to approach the War through the varied experiences of individuals and groups from different walks of life. In this way, the Follow-On project will bring new insights and tools from the research of the 'People of Medieval Scotland' (PoMS) database into the classroom.

This can only be achieved through the collaboration of researchers and teachers. The aim is that the Research Associate, supported by the Research Administrator, will provide a mass of source-based material that can then by adapted for the classroom on the basis of feedback from teachers in Review Days. Teachers will then use this material in Workshops to create 'learning journeys' for all levels up to age 15. 'Learning journeys' are broader and more flexible than lesson plans. They provide questions and prompts that enable learners to explore a body of material in a way that is appropriate for their particular level. This leaves enough flexibility for the teacher to decide how best to deploy the resource in their own classroom. The learning journeys and accompanying source-based material will be accessed by learners and teachers on Education Scotland's free intranet for schools ('GLOW').

The project culminates in the creation of a Professional Learning Community of teachers on GLOW committed to sustaining and developing this material in the classroom.

The immediate beneficiaries of the project are learners and teachers, who will have a wideranging and flexible body of material designed specifically for their use, and based on innovative research of proven quality. Education Scotland will also benefit from having a resource that demonstrates the full potential of the reformed curriculum to meet the needs and interests of individual schools and localities.

In the longer term the project has the potential to challenge the cultural hegemony of the simple approach to the Scottish War of Independence typified by 'Braveheart'. By offering a broader understanding of the varied experience of this pivotal period of Scottish history to 90% of schoolchildren, the project has the potential to reduce the impact of the cruder views of the War of Independence, and change the nature of the War's significance for Scots in the longer term.

The immediate beneficiaries will be
(i) learners and teachers engaging with the Scottish War of Independence as part of Broad General Education (early years to age 15). As a result of this project they will have a wideranging and flexible body of guided material, available on Education Scotland's intranet (GLOW), that will allow them to explore the topic from many perspectives, according to their particular needs and interests;
(ii) teachers across the range of Broad General Education, who will have the support of belonging to a Professional Learning Community (on GLOW), enabling them to gain confidence and experience in teaching this pivotal topic through a wide range of perspectives (rather than simply Scotland v England, Wallace and Bruce), and to be supported in developing fresh material for the classroom from the project's outcomes on GLOW; and (iii) Education Scotland. As a result of this project they will have (a) the full potential of recent curriculum reform realised in a key topic taught in 90% of schools, and (b) they will have a resource that meets the requirements, identified in their recent Impact Review (September 2012), for a more precisely calibrated programme for the development of knowledge, understanding and skills in social studies; for effective transition from primary to secondary schooling; and for a more clearly identified progression in critical thinking and analysis.

The longer term beneficiaries will be the general public in Scotland. As a result of this project, they will be exposed, as pupils and parents, to new perspectives on the Scottish War of Independence. This has the potential to challenge the cultural hegemony of the simple approach typified by 'Braveheart', and offer a broader understanding of the experience of the War through the stories of individuals, groups and localities, which they will now have the opportunity to learn about in school. This, in turn, has the potential to inform Scottish identity insofar as this is expressed through an understanding of this formative period of Scottish history.