Advancing the teaching and learning of multicultural British history in the Key Stage 2 primary school classroom

This paper draws on my current research interest: re-conceptualising the story of Britain's migrant past as framed by the Key Stage 2 national curriculum. I have compared and connected some examples of minority-ethnic group mass-migration and settlement (MEGroMMaS) over the ages: Saxons of the 5th century and Vikings of 8th century (the teaching and learning about these migrant groups of people is national policy and a statutory obligation for coverage in the Key Stage 2 classroom) to that of Afro-Caribbean MEGroMMaS in Britain since 1948 (this Afro-Caribbean legacy of migration is absent from the Key Stage 2 national curriculum). I applied auto-ethnography as method to generate and to develop my personal and professional understanding of the issue. I applied Vertovec's (1996) epistemological concept the ‘diasporic imagination' and Rüsen's (2006) typologies of ‘historical consciousness' to assist my thinking. I shared my evaluations and findings with Key Stage 2 primary school teachers of history. My findings indicate that their thinking and practice concerning the story of Britain's migrant past as framed by the Key Stage 2 national curriculum is advanced through their engagement with marginalised accounts of MEGroMMaS in Britain.