Teaching difficult histories

Practical strategies to help you confidently teach history involving trauma and conflict.

You’ll learn how to:

• build trust
• use different techniques so everyone can ask a question
• respond to challenging or confronting student questions
• support students with personal connections to the content
• use frameworks like Safely In, Safely Out to manage sensitive material, and
• how to look after yourself as a teacher when the content feels heavy.

Resources and tipsheet

• Safely In Safely Out resources: Yada Vashem pedagogical principles and Safely In Safely Out preparing Holocaust lessons
• Teaching Difficult History: A guide for Grade Seven to Twelve Teachers Novia Scotia, Canada
• Free professional development tipsheet for this episode (in Teacher Downloads)

Voices

Educators: Ben Lawless (Victoria), Natalie Abadier (New South Wales), Louise Secker (Western Australia), Paul Foley (South Australia), Natalie Fong (Queensland), and Sarah Coleman (Queensland).

Host: Professor Anna Clark

Credits

• Hey History Teacher! is supported by the History Teachers Association of NSW.
• Executive Producer is Professor Anna Clark.
• Producer is Jane Curtis at UTS Impact Studios.
• Sound engineering by John Jacobs.
• Made on Gadigal Country in Sydney Australia.