McFahn, Richard, and Sarah Herrity. "Riots, Railways and a Hampshire Hill Fort: Exploiting Local History for Rigorous Evidential Enquiry." (2009)

Rigorous historical enquiry is integral to effective history teaching. The 2008 National Curriculum has recognised its importance by giving it a broader definition as a key process to include not only the use of historical sources, but also the process of students devising questions, developing hypotheses, investigating interpretations and reaching judgments. Planning longer enquiries provides students with a series of lessons in which they have the time to develop these processes more effectively. The teachers on Hampshire's history steering committee wanted to plan longer, more meaningful enquiries for their Key Stage 3 history students. The teachers wanted their students to work like genuine historians, using authentic evidence to form their own judgments. Part of the meaning-making would come through a focus on local history. This article shares the work of three teachers in three different Hampshire secondary schools, all of whom have recently planned rigorous local enquiries around the use of evidence. They have faced similar issues, but employed three divergent approaches: Richard McFahn had his pupils 'beating' a historian for suggesting the simplistic argument that enclosure led to the Swing Riots. Sarah Herrity's students found themselves assessing the typicality of their own Victorian railway town. Neil Bates' students walked in the footsteps of the past as they explored the Iron Age hill fort on which their school was built. Pupils began to consider the very nature of historical enquiry and the limitations of the historical process. Examples of resources, student work, and ideas for assessment are provided.