Search Results

Queenship studies have long been an exciting area of research, but we tend to focus on European royal women traditionally. This list looks at lives of queens and royal women in the medieval Islamic world.

Royal women of eastern Asia

All too often, the lives of royal women, particularly outside of a British and European context, are missing in wider histories, textbooks and the curriculum. This list focusses on the presence and influence of royal women in pre-modern east Asia.

Byzantine empresses and royal women

The Byzantine Empire and its royal women and empresses are often overlooked in a school’s curricula. However, looking at the women of the Byzantine Empire provides excellent opportunities to demonstrate the political agency of women in the middle ages.

Women and the Renaissance

Through these sources, teachers can show students that women were significant contributors to the Renaissance: from writers to painters to sculptors, they were prolific just like their male counterparts.

Women in early medicine

The struggles of individual women to contribute to and be recognised in this traditionally male-dominated field.

Working-class women and the British Empire

These resources aim to help teachers introduce the often ignored voices of working-class women who lived and worked within the British empire into discussions of the topic.

Women’s Activism in 19th century Britain

These resources not only offer a new perspective on women’s activism but enrich our understanding of wider political movements in the 19th century.

Women and the American Revolution: Courage and Defiance

These resources will help teachers devise inclusive discussions and help students to engage with questions such as: ‘How did women influence the American Revolution?’ and ‘Why are women often forgotten when studying the American Revolution?’

How women settlers influenced the American West

The resources can be used to emphasise the social and cultural diversity of the American West, highlighting the vital yet often under-represented impact women had upon their communities and on wider society.

Life in the American West: ‘celebrity’ women making their mark in the Wild West

These resources aim to help students understand the varied roles women had in the building of modern America, and they allow us to rewrite the narrative around their contribution.

Royal women of the Mughal Empire

This list explores the lives of royal women in the Mughal Empire, to demystify their roles and personal liberties, in what makes a fascinating case studies for students who are looking beyond the European scene.

The Royal Women of the Ottoman Empire

Women from dynasties other than the Tudor, Plantagenet and Stuart are often overlooked in British and European history – this list helps you bring them back into the narrative with confidence.

Tudor Royal and Noble Women: The Pinnacle of ‘Soft Power’?

When it comes to studying Tudor history, the main focus has been on monarchs and on the men who gained power through advising and counselling these rulers. The truth is, political agency is more complex than the study of rulership itself.

Women and the Renaissance

Women and Agency at Charles II’s Court

These resources will enable teachers to consider questions such as: ‘How did women shape Charles II’s court?’, ‘How did they influence his politics?’ and ‘What roles did they play in the cultural life of seventeenth-century Britain?’

THE WOMEN OF THE WARS OF THE ROSES

Women were central to the developments of this epic conflict, and this list bring them back to the centre of the stage.

WOMEN AND THE NORMAN CONQUEST

Putting women back into the narrative provides a fuller understanding of Anglo-Saxon and Norman England.

WOMEN IN CELTIC SOCIETY

Examining the lives of women in Celtic society offers a fascinating, and slightly different, perspective of this period in history.

THE EXPERIENCES OF GIRLS AND WOMEN IN ROMAN BRITAIN

A tantalising glimpse into the rich diversity of women’s lives in Roman Britain.

Voices from the Classroom: Teacher Reactions to the Curriculum Review

In our recent blog on the Curriculum & Assessment Review, we explored the government’s ambitious plans for curriculum and assessment reform. But the real test lies in classrooms, in how teachers respond to these proposals and how easy or difficult is to put them into …

Homosexuality in Nazi Germany

Hitler’s ‘racial state’ also turned the apparatus of state oppression against other sections of society.

Irish perspectives on the Easter Rising of 1916

An alternative viewpoint on the Easter Rising highlighting women’s experiences of the event.

Everyday forms of resistance

Powerless people contest and subvert the powerful in all sorts of subtle, hidden and non-confrontational ways.

Humanising Holocaust study through survivor testimony

To understand the Holocaust, and teach effectively about this challenging subject, it is essential to look at authentic personal accounts of those who lived through it, by humanising the study.

Female spies and secret agents in WW2: the Special Operations Executive

A fascinating insight into the often overlooked role women played in the Special Operations Executive secret organisation, and the contribution made by female spies and secret agents in the Second World War.

The Black Power Movement

These materials enable students to see what Black Power activists said and did and to gain an in-depth understanding of their struggle for civil rights.

Early influencers in the fight for civil rights

The starting point in the fight for civil rights is difficult to determine, so the sources here focus on the early influencers in the civil rights movement, including W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells and Mary White Ovington.

Islamic Spain in the Middle Ages: A Multicultural Society

These resources will help you to teach about an example of a multicultural society in the Middle Ages from different viewpoints: shifting away from a Eurocentric perspective will help you enrich your offer.

The reign of King John

These resources offer lots of evidence that will enable students to investigate the controversial figure of King John.

Eleanor of Aquitaine: Ultimate queen of Europe

Expressing one’s worldview, Religious Studies

These resources aim to help teachers and students understand Eleanor’s political, diplomatic and cultural roles during a complex time.

How did religions respond to the COVID-19 Pandemic?

These resources will help you and your students understand how religious communities around the world adapted to the pandemic.

Dance in religious worship and ceremonies

Expressing one’s worldview, Religious Studies

This list aims to help students explore ways that dance has become part of religious expressions of faith and belief.

The symbolism of water in ritual and ceremony

Expressing one’s worldview, Religious Studies

This resource list will help the religion and worldviews teacher of KS3 and above explore some of the many symbolic meanings that water holds in religious traditions.

How people, animals and plants adapt to extreme environments

Ecosystems and Environments, Geography

These resources will help teachers and students to look more deeply into how people, animals and plants have adapted to extreme environments.

‘Two Kingdoms’: What is the Relationship between Church and State in the UK?

Power and influence, Religious Studies

These resources explore the relationship of Church and State in the UK: its history, recent debates of its existence, and ultimately the question of its future.

Female leadership in religions

Power and influence, Religious Studies

These resources aim to help students explore themes of the role of women in faith, as well as how religious texts are interpreted in contemporary times.

Can and should a business be ethical?

Being good, Religious Studies

This list offers a sample of the variety of resources, genres and perspectives with which teachers can benefit and engage their students.

Discussions on abortion and religion

Life and death, Religious Studies

These resources will help navigate the religious contributions to this ongoing issue, providing insights for GCSE and A-level discussions.

Does God hate sex?

Human nature and experiences, Religious Studies

These texts explore a range of different views on this topic, from moral conservativism to feminist and queer theology.

New Religious Movements

Human nature and experiences, Religious Studies

These resources give academic grounding to discussions around NRMs and case studies that students may be aware of and particularly interested in exploring.

Pets and their role in the Second World War

History, Modern British History

Alongside radar and jet aeroplanes, animals played a major role in warfare: this list offers insights into the major contribution that pets and other animals made, both on and off the battlefield.

The arrival of European settlers in Australia

The fate of Australia’s indigenous inhabitants is not widely known outside of Australia.

British politics in the nineteenth century

The undoubted injustices of the nineteenth century have sometimes been perceived as difficult to tackle, but this list offers engaging and vibrant resources to approach the topic from all sides.

The Whitechapel murders of 1888 from the victims’ perspective

A more rounded, less simplistic investigation of the Jack the Ripper story.

Female participation in British politics pre-1900

Before the Suffragettes and the fight for equality in the 20th century, many women who left their mark on history.

Gender bias in the police investigation of the ‘Whitechapel murders’

An investigation into whether gender bias played a role in the Metropolitan Police’s failure to apprehend the culprit of the infamous Whitechapel murders.

Queen Victoria and power politics

Victoria is one of the most studied women in history yet most of the literature has centred on Victoria’s personal life. Victoria was the first Queen in Britain to be a monarch, a wife and mother, and this list explores the depths of her reign.

Law and order and criminality in Victorian England

Insights into criminality in Victorian London and the pivotal yet often overlooked innovation represented by the introduction of police officers.

Nineteenth-century Female Explorers

A captivating collection of stories of courageous women who defied their time’s conventions to explore the world and often contributed to scientific discoveries by doing so.

The role of African Americans as pioneers in the American West

Climate change and sustainability, Geography

These resources are intended to challenge established narratives by including more of the stories of African Americans and the significant role they played as pioneers, as well as looking at some of the challenges they faced.

Tackling climate change and sustainability in the classroom

Anthropogenic (human-made) climate change is now part of everyone’s lived experience, and this list will help you feel more confident to tackle the issue in the classroom.

The reinterpretation of Mary Tudor’s life

A more balanced view of ‘Bloody Mary’, a pioneering female ruler in a deeply patriarchal age.

Female leaders in early modern Britain

The male-centric focus on kings and politicians too often ignores the fascinating female leaders in British history.

The Renaissance – a comparison of city-states

A truly historical analysis of a a crucial period of European development and its key features: the Renaissance and its city-states.

Elizabeth I and Religion

England experienced four types of religious reformations in less than 100 years: by analysing the Elizabethan settlement, pupils can explore aspects of the ‘via media’.

Elizabeth I’s Rulership: Gender and Authority

Insights into the unique position Elizabeth I found herself in: a woman leader in a traditionally patriarchal society and context, who was seen as the absolute authority nevertheless.

Henry VIII’s six wives: influence and legacy

An overview of the contributions brought to Tudor history by the six women Henry VIII married, who all exercised some influence at court and beyond.

Elizabeth I and Mary Stuart: a complex rivalry

The rivalry between Elizabeth I and Mary Stuart has fascinated historians and the public for centuries. To teach this topic from a new perspective, recent scholarship in the public and academic domain needs to be at the forefront of the discussions.

Lady Jane Grey: political pawn

Lady Jane Grey remains a largely forgotten historical figure and yet her fate marked English history, however, this was a very important moment in Tudor history.

The Restoration and the Court of Charles II

Development, economic change and globalisation, Geography

A closer look at the Restoration, the role that Charles II’s court played in it, and how this period shaped the future centuries of British and European history.

Africa is not a country: using stories to explore the diverse continent of Africa

Africa is a glorious and diverse continent, but all too often it is reduced in our students’ minds to a homogenous place: this list will help you present this complex and varied continent with a more aware perspective.

Emigration: those who moved away from Britain, and those who were left behind

Early Modern Period, History, Industry and Empire, Modern British History

These resources offer teachers an opportunity to look at an established topic from a different angle, uncovering histories that have remained largely hidden until recently.

PLANTAGENET QUEENS AND QUEENSHIP

A fascinating overview of the queens who shaped Britain’s history before their more famous Tudor successors.

CRUSADER QUEENS: THE QUEENS OF JERUSALEM

An insight into the role women and queens played in the history of the Crusades.

THE ORACLE OF DELPHI

Much of the teaching about the ancient world is focused on men, especially military or political leaders. However, there is one place that was dominated by a woman for 1500 years: the Oracle of Delphi.

UNDERSTANDING CLEOPATRA – FEMALE POWER IN THE ANCIENT WORLD