A set of worksheets to be used on-site at the National Archives by secondary school children

Abstract

Archival work is essential to the subject and discipline of History. The process of going to the archives, handling the original documents, delving deep and analysing the different types of primary sources is what produces history. That is the work of the historian. The ability to interact with the primary documents, question the sources, gather evidence and critically evaluate them to come up with an interpretation based on the sources and information gathered, is what the work of the historian entails. This historical ability of analysing and interpreting sources is central to current history pedagogy, which no longer puts the focus on content knowledge but rather seeks to cultivate historical skills and concepts among students. Among these skills that can be developed is the analysis and interpretation of sources. This project draws on the importance of archival work in history and the focus placed on the cultivation of historical skills, particularly the analysis of sources, as it seeks to introduce secondary school students to the archives and archival work. This is done by means of a set of worksheets, a total of seventeen worksheets, split up by historical theme and purpose. The first worksheet in the set acts as an introductory guide to the archives which provides students with an understanding of the archives and a step-by-step guide on how to use them. The rest of the sixteen worksheets are split up into their own set according to the theme they deal with which are ‘The Cholera Epidemics’, ‘The Language Question’ and ‘The Santo Spirito Hospital’. These historically themed worksheets serve the purpose of providing a bit of content knowledge, but most importantly, their purpose is to train the students in analysing and interpreting primary sources while achieving the learning outcome found in the history national curriculum which is that of “Analysing and interpreting historical evidence” (History DLAP, 2023a, p. 3).