Skip to Content
Citation: 

Sears, Alan. "Fifty Shades of History Teaching." Antistasis 3, no. 1 (2013): ii-iv. 

Abstract/Summary: 

In his Introduction to this issue of the journal Antistasis, Sears discusses his objection to the idea of “Heritage Week” and the Heritage Minutes television series due to the concept of “heritage” seeming “to focus on peaceful, patriotic, pleasant, but ultimately patronizing bits of our past.” He also discusses this in relation to his presentation to a group of grade 8 middle school students. He analyzes why the series seems to be so popular with students, concluding that it is because each segment has a “clear narrative and a compelling hero/es.” The rest of his Introduction is an overview of the other pieces in the collection that are thematically linked by Ken Osborne’s adage: the role of history educators is to reveal “the past in all of its many colours.”

Source/Credit: 
Shannon Leggett