Studying migration enables a more comprehensive, more complete understanding of Britain’s past with a close relationship to the concepts and processes of globalisation, imperialism and empire which are all connected to this theme. Critically, through the embrace of complexity at the heart of migration history, it reveals the contingent and multi-stranded nature of history more generally.

The scope exists now within all the main GCSE specifications to study migration, opening the scope to give young people access to more historically complex ideas about migration. The migration units offer a new kind of history at GCSE: the story of human movement and the impact this has had on the evolution of English and British identity.

Given the complexity and sometimes highly charged nature of the topic, thought and care needs to be given to planning work on migration.

As a busy teacher it can be tempting to avoid areas of contention; nevertheless we contend that for our students it would be a valuable addition to make migration part of your teaching.

In this podcast Jason Todd (University of Oxford) is joined by Dr Alison Kitson (Institute of Education) and Professor Tony Kushner of the University of Southampton.

* Please note that each of the introductions are specific to the individual podcast while the acknowledgements are generic in all of the introductions. 

1. Introduction
2. How did you first get interested in the history of migration?
3. What makes this topic controversial?
4. What makes this topic controversial in the classroom?
5. Where is the scholarship in terms of temporal, spatial and methodological framing?
6. How do you frame the journey?
7. How have you used testimony in the classroom?
8. Comparative testimonies and context
9. The importance of language and terminology?
10. Are there any other pedagogical approaches we need to think about?
11. The concept of twoness?
12. Concluding thoughts