Focus on Practice
‘It would have been bad’: the development of historical
imagination and empathy in a group of secondary aged
pupils with severe learning difficulties Andrew Turner
Andrew Turner, who teaches in a school for pupils
with severe learning difficulties, considers the teaching
of history by teachers of such pupils and suggests
that the skills of imaginative reconstruction and
empathy are relatively neglected areas, particularly
when dealing with distant historical periods. Recent
research with mainstream primary pupils illustrates
the possible parallels and the article gives details of
a small-scale study of one group of Key Stage 3 pupils.
Introduction
Relatively little research has been published on the
teaching and learning of history in schools for pupils
with severe learning difficulties. One of the earliest
references is by Wilson (1988) who felt that ‘History, as
the term is generally understood, cannot be taught to
these [ESN-S] children’ (p.4) as they are often functioning
at an early level of development. The claim begs several
questions, the most significant of which are what
constitutes ‘history’ and what are the links between
‘history’ and the ‘required developmental level’ of
pupils? A detailed answer to both questions is needed and
‘doing history’ can be defined as learning something
about the past as the past. What I have been concerned
to show is that some pupils defined as having severe
learning difficulties will be able to benefit from the
teaching of history in ways which have not yet been fully
explored; in particular, their ability to develop an imaginative
understanding of the lives of others, which are very different
from their own, is under-researched and, consequently,
under-taught.
Recent significant contributions to the debate on the theory
and practicalities by, for example, Banes and Sebba
(1991), Sebba and Clarke (1991, 1993), Sebba (1994),
and Ware and Peacey (1993) have concentrated on ways
in which National Curriculum requirements can be made
accessible to pupils with severe learning difficulties and
contain some indication of the way in which historical
imagination may be developed. Nevertheless, they tend to
limit expectations of the possible development of the
skill of ‘imagining’ or empathising with people from
other times or other places. For example, Sebba (1994)
states:
‘Many of the examples in this book are from
teachers who consider the most appropriate and
relevant history teaching to be that which relates
to the pupils’ own experiences, families and local
area.’
(p.2)
164 British Journal of Special Education
Where there is teaching of the history of very different
times, there is perhaps still greater scope for the
development of imaginative understanding. For example,
in the work cited by Ware and Peacey, the project on
the Romans states that an outcome was that students
‘experienced the way in which Roman children spent
their leisure time’ (p.68) (the present author’s emphasis),
but it seems that the project did not go on to explore the
issue of whether the experiences enabled the students to
produce work of historical imagination relating to a
Roman childhood.
The research described below was the result of an
investigation into the degree to which pupils with severe
learning difficulties can be encouraged to understand,
through the imaginative re-creation of past events, the
lives of others. In addition, some tentative conclusions on
how the work may be facilitated are presented. The
findings of recent research with primary-age mainstream
children (Knight, 1990, Hodgkinson, 1992) which
report evidence of the abilities of these groups to
demonstrate skills in historical imagination, previously
‘undiscovered’ or unreported, have been influential.
There seemed no reason to believe that pupils with severe
learning difficulties could not, at some level, attempt
similar work as it was felt that some of them may have
undiscovered potential.
Tasks and responses
The pupils involved were from 13 to 14 years of age; all
had severe learning difficulties, but were at the ‘upper
end’ of the range. They were, for example, all verbal with
some reading skills ranging from a social sight vocabulary
of a few words to an ability to read texts aimed at 5 to 6
year olds. The work undertaken was in the context of a
series of lessons on the Spanish Armada, and was taught
by a history specialist who had moved into special
education teaching. The aim of the sessions was to
produce a short piece of writing (or a dictated story)
describing the feelings of a sailor about to be involved in
the battle with the Spanish Armada. The responses of
the pupils were tape recorded, examples of which are
reported below.
Lesson One
The content of the lesson was a general introduction,
using coloured and black and white photographs from
various history text books, to the kinds of ships used at the
time. The teacher briefly explained how life might have
been for the sailors, and stressed the similarities and
differences with the pupils’ own experiences, that, for
example, there was no electricity and therefore no TV and
no electric light.
Volume 25, No. 4 (December 1998)
Pupils drew pictures of the ships and at the end of the
lesson briefly discussed what it could have been like to
sail on one of the ships. Their responses included:
‘It would be cold, and dark… it would be hard
work.’
‘I would be scared of the dark.’
‘I wouldn’t like it… because it would be dark and
scary.’
Thus the pupils were already able to move beyond the
merely descriptive (based on two sets of historical
sources, i.e. contemporary and modern pictures of ships
and the teacher’s descriptions) and were beginning to
show a real degree of empathetic understanding.
Lesson Two
Pupils listened to a short, imaginative account of a sea
battle, then produced pictures based on the story and were
asked to describe the contents. Their responses included:
‘I would have been scared by the noise… I would
have been afraid of drowning.’
‘I would be afraid of the fires… and the noise would
have been bad.’
One pupil developed the theme of feeling alone and
missing his family:
‘I would feel scared… and it would be sad for me
and my family if I got hurt… they would miss me…
I would miss them as well when I was away.’
Another showed a developing understanding of the hopes
and fears of those involved in a battle:
PUPIL: It would be like my grandad says about the
war… they wanted to beat the others.
TEACHER: The Spanish?
PUPIL: Yes, the Spanish, to stop them taking over…
they would have been scared, but they had to
fight, didn’t they?’
Lesson Three
Pupils were asked to recount what they could remember
of the previous lessons and were then asked to say what
they thought it would have been like for a sailor waiting
to go into battle on one of the ships. Their responses
showed a degree of empathy for those involved:
‘It would been horrible… like… dentist!’ [laughs]
‘I would have been brave, but scared as well.’
‘I wouldn’t have liked it.’
One exchange showed both empathy and a realistic view
of the situation for the sailors of the time:
PUPIL: It would have been bad… I would have
wanted to cry and go home, but you wouldn’t
have been allowed to.
TEACHER: Why not?
British Journal of Special Education Volume 25, No. 4 (December 1998)
PUPIL: Because you had to stop, because you
were… you were ordered to.
TEACHER: What do you think they would do to you
if you tried to run away?
PUPIL: Lock you up… or chop your head off… or
something!
Lesson Four
This was a follow-up lesson taken two weeks later and had
a slightly different focus. The teacher was keen to explore
the possibilities of using CD-ROM material to further
develop the imaginative responses reported above. The
material, Stephen Biesty’s Stowaway! is based on life on
an 18th century warship. It was chosen because of the
links with previous work on the Armada and as it seemed
to offer a far more stimulating source of historical
information than that used in the previous lessons.
Although the period is not the same, it was felt that the
issues of empathy and imaginative reconstruction could
be explored in a comparable way.
The results were striking. All the pupils were clearly
motivated by the presentation and were able to make
some comparisons between the ship featured on the
CD-ROM and those looked at before. They commented
on the features which were the same (guns and sails) and
those which differed: the size of the ships. All were able
to state that the ships had sails unlike those of today. The
most significant responses, however, were related to the
way in which pupils were able to empathise, with very
little teacher input, with the people depicted on the
CD-ROM. Where there was teacher input, the ability of
pupils to extend their thinking was also significant, and
the most striking comments were:
‘That would be bad, all dark and noisy like that, and
they must have been scared… you could have got
stuck down there.’
‘If you fell over[board] you would freeze… you
wouldn’t get saved… Horrible.’
‘Look, there’s fire and that… scared… I’d be scared…
not fire… you get stuck and can’t get out. It’s bad for
them. I [would] want to go home… get away… off.’
‘It’s better now… we don’t have to do that… that’s
better.’
When shown an animated clip of a ship being struck by
cannon balls, one pupil’s response was:
PUPIL: Look at that… that’s bad. He’s hurt, isn’t he?
Bleeding? And the smoke… you’d choke on
that… And the noise. He’s bleeding… would
he die?
TEACHER: He might have… or he might have to
have an operation.’
The CD-ROM scene of the surgeon was then shown:
PUPIL: That’s horrible. Yuck. It’s all dirty. I think
he’ll die like that, won’t he? He needs to go
to hospital.
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 TEACHER: Like our hospitals?
PUPIL: Yeah, he should go there. That’s bad [pointing
at the screen].
Discussion
In his work on the teaching of history to 10 to 11 year olds
in mainstream primary schools, Hodgkinson reported
that:
‘… even without specific instruction or suggestion, a
significant number of 10-11 year olds were able to
show historical imagination in a rather mundane task
with unexciting primary source material… What
gives the exercise poignancy is therefore the contrast
between the very ordinariness of the teaching context
and the high levels of historical reconstruction and
imagination that the children actually achieved.’
(pp.90-91).
Arguably, the findings are reflected in the work reported
above. The pupils in the study showed a genuine ability to
empathise with characters from a time very different from
their own and to reconstruct their feelings with materials
which are likely to be found in most schools.
In addition, when the material was replaced by the
more stimulating CD-ROM, the responses of the pupils
continued to demonstrate their ability to empathise
with, and imaginatively reconstruct the lives of, the
people depicted to a degree which suggests that the
relative lack of work on these particular aspects of history
should be re-evaluated. Although the current shortage of
appropriate CD-ROM materials can be a problem, their
use to encourage a response amongst pupils with severe
learning difficulties could result in significant benefits.
The use of CD-ROM ‘role-play’ simulation games is,
however, worth investigating.
The teaching described above is not revolutionary and, as
with Hodgkinson’s study, its very ordinariness makes the
responses of the pupils more striking. Given the level of
response to a limited range of experiences, the prospect of
even greater empathetic insights into life in other times
could perhaps result from more exciting teaching methods.
Field trips to castles and living museums; the use of
historically accurate or representative video materials and
films (including Cadfael and other period dramas, Henry V
and Robin Hood); the use of role plays; and visits by
References
Banes, D. & Sebba, J. (1991) ‘I was little then’, British
Journal of Special Education. 18 (3), pp.121-124.
Biesty, S. (1994) Stowaway! London: Dorling
Kindersley Multimedia.
Carpenter, B., Ashdown, R. & Bovair, K. (1996) (eds.)
Enabling Access. Effective Teaching and Learning
for Pupils with Learning Difficulties. London: David
Fulton Publishers.
Hodgkinson, K. (1992) ‘Young children’s ability to
integrate historical data from primary sources’,
Research in Education. 48, pp.85-91.
166 British Journal of Special Education
local historical re-enactment societies all offer scope for
the development of the historical imagination. The physical
re-enactment or the witnessing of such re-enactments seem
likely to offer opportunities for the greater involvement of
a wide range of pupils.
Nevertheless, however history is presented, the question,
‘how would it feel?’ should be posed as a part of all history
teaching (whatever the available materials) and the periods
currently considered suitable need to be re-evaluated.
This study indicates that pupils are able to respond to
materials relating to times and places quite different from
their own. Although this research is small scale, with
clear limitations, there is no reason to assume that the
results are in any way unusual. The abilities of the pupils
involved match those of a proportion of pupils in every
special school that the author has been involved with, but
there is no suggestion that the results reported above
could be achieved by all children in schools for pupils
with severe learning difficulties. There are significant
issues surrounding the meaningful access of many pupils
to ‘history’, particularly for those with profound and
multiple learning difficulties.
The definition of ‘history’ adopted in this research as
‘learning something about the past as the past’ and the wish
to stimulate and develop an empathetic understanding of
periods distant from our own, clearly poses problems of
access for pupils with profound and multiple learning
difficulties. The recognition, however, that these pupils
are unlikely to be able to create, and to reflect on, an
imagined picture of times should not exclude them from
experiencing historical activities alongside their more able
peers as part of their entitlement to a broad and balanced
curriculum, which includes subject-based teaching, as
advocated by Ware (1994).
This research suggests that history need not be limited to,
or concentrate upon, the personal or the family for pupils
to gain from the subject, and that the often overlooked
aspects when pupils are encouraged to take part in
empathetic reconstructions of the lives of others should
be part of history teaching in schools for pupils with
severe learning difficulties. Good history teaching should
aim, in part, to transport pupils from the present and
encourage them to look imaginatively at past ways of life.
An aim which should be shared by teachers of pupils with
learning difficulties.
Knight, P. (1990) ‘A study of teaching and children’s
understanding of people in the past’, Research in
Education. 44, pp.39-53.
Sebba, J. & Clarke, J. (1991) ‘Meeting the needs of pupils
within History and Geography’, in R. Ashdown, B.
Carpenter & K. Bovair (eds.) The Curriculum
Challenge: Access to the National Curriculum for
Pupils with Learning Difficulties. Lewes: Falmer Press
Sebba, J. & Clarke, J. (1993) ‘A response to “We’re
doing History”’, British Journal of Special
Education. 20 (4), pp.141-142.
Volume 25, No. 4 (December 1998)
Sebba, J. (1994) History for All. London: David Fulton Wilson, M. D. (1988) History for Pupils with Learning
Publishers. Difficulties. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
Sebba, J. (1995) ‘History for pupils who experience
severe difficulties in learning’, in P. Potts, F. ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Armstrong & M. Masterton (eds.) Equality and
Diversity in Education. Learning: Teaching and Address for correspondence
Managing In Schools. London: Routledge. Andrew Turner
Ware, J. (1994) ‘Implementing the 1988 Act with pupils Severndale School
with PMLDs’, in J. Ware (ed.) Educating Children Hearne Way
with Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties. Monkmoor
London: David Fulton Publishers. Shrewsbury
Ware, J. & Peacey, N. (1993) ‘“We’re doing History”: SY2 5SL
What does it mean?’, British Journal of Special
Education. 20 (2), pp.65-69. Accepted for publication: March 1998

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