National pride and students’ attitudes towards history: an exploratory study

Recent debates about “Britishness” have drawn increasing attention to the inculcation of national values within the school history curriculum. To date, however, few studies have explored young people’s attitudes towards history or how these are related to their sources of national pride and shame. This paper draws on a survey of over 400 undergraduates’ experiences of secondary education, investigating their attitudes towards the history curriculum and how these relate to their feelings of national pride. Using principal components analysis we found that students’ attitudes towards history loaded on to two distinct factors: traditional/conservative and multicultural/liberal. Bivariate correlations then revealed that pride in national sporting and economic achievements and a sense of shame about immigration were positively associated with a traditional attitude towards history. Pride in British civil liberties and social diversity and a sense of shame about racism and UK foreign policy were associated with a multicultural attitude. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

MEDIA USE AND INSTRUCTIONAL METHODS IN COMMUNITY COLLEGE SCIENCE COURSES AND RELATED AREAS

Using the data collected by Arthur Cohen in a national study on curriculum, instructional, and course practices in science courses in community colleges, this study explored instructional methods and media use. Several areas were investigated. These included (1) media use and attrition, (2) media production facilities and assistance used, and (3) media development locally. The results indicate that lecture is the most predominate method, that media have little effect on attrition, and that geographic region has little effect on media use.