Learning Lessons from War?: Inclusions and Exclusions in Teaching First World War History in English Secondary Schools

Abstract

This article explores how secondary school pupils in England are integrated into the First World War centenary practices of remembrance with a particular focus on education. It discusses which narratives of the war are included in and excluded from secondary-level classroom history teaching and raises important concerns relating to the “memory messages” that are being communicated via history teaching of the First World War and the consequences of such narratives regarding the replication of power relations, a continued inability to deal with Britain’s colonial legacy, and an uncritical normalizing of the military in the minds of young people.