On 12 - 13 February 2007 the IHR held a conference called 'Why History Matters' to discuss the question of why History is a crucial element in UK education and national life in the early twenty-first century. Delegates were drawn from an unprecedented range of professional backgrounds, including primary, secondary, further and higher education, school governors, HMIs, representatives of museums, the QCA, the media, the connexions and guidance services, examining boards, English Heritage, the Council for British Archaeology and Historic Royal Palaces.

Final report

The final report of the conference.

Programme

You can find all the speakers and discussion topics on the conference programme.

Audio files

The audio files below are in MP3 format unless specified otherwise. If you have any problems listening to them, please email ihr.webmaster@sas.ac.uk.

Lectures

• The history curriculum: past, present and future

  • Paul Armitage (OFSTED)
    Listen to this talk (20 mins; 18MB file)

• Why history matters; two historians' perspectives

  • Justin Champion (Royal Holloway, University of London)
    Listen to this talk (28 mins; 9.7MB)

  • Roy Foster (University of Oxford)
    Listen to this talk (34 mins; 12MB)

• What is a history education for?

  • Ros Ashby (Institute of Education)
    Listen to this talk (7 mins; 2.6MB)

  • Stuart Foster (Institute of Education)
    Listen to this talk (7 mins; 2.9MB)

• Students' historical knowledge: what research tells us

  • Peter Lee (Institute of Education)
    Listen to this talk (19 mins; 7MB)

  • Peter Lee (Institute of Education)
    Listen to this talk (9 mins; 3.2MB)

• Creating a curriculum that will help all young people in Britain understand the world in which they live

  • Penelope Harnett (University of the West of England)
    Listen to this talk (21 mins; 7.3MB)

  • Michael Riley (Bath Spa University)
    Listen to this talk (20 mins; 7.2MB)

  • Rachel Ward (King Edward VI High School, Bury St Edmunds)
    Listen to this talk (12 mins; 4.3MB)

• Why history matters: further perspectives from a historian and an archaeologist

  • Madge Dresser (University of the West of England)
    Listen to this talk (22 mins; 7.6MB)

  • Don Henson (British Council for Archaeology)
    Listen to this talk (23 mins; 8.1MB)

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