Constructing narrative

Narrative is shedding its status as the ‘underrated skill’, re-emerging as a requirement of the new GCSE in England. As Counsell has argued, constructing a narrative is ‘no easy option’, however, and asking students to ‘Write an account…’ lacks the comfortable familiarity of ‘Explain why…’ or ‘How far…’. Fortunately, many teachers have already taken up Lang’s challenge to give the construction of historical narrative a place in school history. Their published work provides both inspiration and practical examples, as these starting points in Teaching History show...