Immersive funded CPD: Sickness and social reform in the Victorian and Edwardian period

Funded online CPD for Key Stages 2-5

Mini Teacher Fellowship: Sickness, Social Reform and the Victorian and Edwardian Post Office

This special funded CPD programme is running in partnership with the Wellcome Trust Collaborative Research project, Addressing Health: Morbidity and Mortality in the Victorian and Edwardian Post Office. The project explores the relationships between work and health in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries through the lens of thousands of Post Office employees.

By the end of the nineteenth century the Post Office was the largest employer in Britain, outside of the army. It employed men, women and children throughout England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales in urban and rural locations and in a range of roles from rural messengers to high powered civil servants. As part of the Civil Service, the Post Office was also at the forefront of providing a range of welfare support for employees including sick pay, medical care and a pension.  The documents produced to record this provision provide unique insights to life and experiences of work and sickness in this nationwide organisation. 

The project’s research has touched on themes of medical knowledge, disability, gender, geographies and histories of sickness, occupational health and the family as well as the role of the state in managing public health and employment reform in the period. The wide social, political and economic coverage provides curriculum links to local and post-1066 units at Key Stage 2, local and ideas, political power, industry and empire: Britain, 1745-1901 units at Key Stage 3, medical history at Key Stage 4 and links to topics covering 19th century reform at A-level. Join us on this mini-Teacher Fellowship to explore these themes and get closer to understanding what life, work and health was like for different genders, classes and locations in the 19th and early 20th centuries. 

This programme is currently ongoing. Outcome resources will be published in 2025.

  • Who is leading the programme? 

    The programme is led by experienced teacher educator Helen Snelson. Participants work closely with project academics Prof David Green (King’s College London), Prof Nicola Shelton (UCL) and Dr Kathleen McIlvenna (University of Derby) to draw on their professional expertise and develop resources for classroom use. 

    The programme is fully funded by the Wellcome Trust as part of the Public Engagement Enrichment Fund in partnership with the Historical Association.  

  • What is the structure of the programme, and what is expected of me?

    The programme began on Saturday 20 April with a full day of online lectures and workshops to develop participants’ subject knowledge. Participants then completed an online course, including online twilight workshops (4.45pm–6.15pm) on Thursday 25 April, Thursday 2 May, Thursday 23 May and Thursday 6 June. Attendance at all the online sessions is essential and active contribution to discussions is expected.  

    As an outcome of the course, participants are developing written resources for the benefit of other teachers. It is expected that they will plan their outcome with the course leader in June–July and work on this over the summer holidays, submitting their draft resource by Friday 30 August. Feedback will be given in early September with final resources to be submitted by the end of October. If participants wish for their outcome resource to be published on the HA website, and provided it is assessed up to standard, they are expected to engage fully with the editorial process until December.  

  • What are the intended outcomes of the programme? 

    • - To enrich and develop teachers' practice by working with a teacher educator and academics working on the latest research and scholarship in this area.
    • - To develop a suite of resources for teachers and pupils (with accompanying notes for use) that use learning and resources from the programme and supplement existing resources.  
    • - To enhance teachers’ knowledge and understanding of the historical period and feel empowered to use this learning in new ways.
    • - To learn about and use a free online resource, the Addressing Health datamapper 

Any further questions?

Please contact Maheema Chanrai at maheema.chanrai@history.org.uk.

Recorded webinar: Sickness and the State: Working in the 19th Century Post Office

Find out more in our introductory webinar with the project team.
 


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