Introduction:
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The role of history education in schools is multi-faceted and fundamental for the cognitive development of the youth. While history in schools can be cynically characterised as relaying the irrelevant troubles of the past, scholars such as Jonker claim that history education is in fact ‘inevitably a thing of the present’ (2012, pp. 96; Weber 2012, pp. 329), as both teachers and students alike are primarily motivated and influenced by contemporary concerns. Thus, we can use the past as an educational tool to understand and contextualise the world around us (Smith and Jackson 2021, pp. 152). This makes it a vital component to a child’s early development when interpreting the societal norms and world events that will inevitably affect their lives. Moreover, history education can help children build a collective identity and awareness for cultural heritage (Henkaline 2023, pp. 27), as well as help develop more cognitive skills, such as critical thinking, perspective and empathy for the troubles of others (Rodwell 2013, pp. 134).
However, studies conducted in the 2010s show that approximately 70% of students in England chose to drop history by the age of 13-14 (Harris and Haydn 2012). This statistic also masked the sizable variation across different types of schools, with Harris and Haydn highlighting a growing concern that if this trend continued, history could go ‘the same way’ as Latin and classics, becoming a subject primarily reserved for private schools and the elite (2012, pp. 98). However, GCSE History enrolment has increased, with figures up 24.9% between the years 2016 and 2024 (Royal Historical Society 2024). This shows that these trends towards inequality of history education within Generation Z students did not come to pass. Moreover, with the rise of history related content within modern media, the subject's popularity at GCSE and A level has continued to rise year on year.
With all this in mind, hearing directly from Generation Z students who lived through and contributed towards this positive shift in school history education’s perception and engagement, could be invaluable in determining how history education has increased in popularity. Moreover, much can be learned from Generation Z students’ hindsight and subsequent experiences regarding whether school history education is perceived to have left an impact on their personal development. It would also be enlightening to learn how Generation Z assesses the relevance and diversity of the historical periods they were taught and whether they would like to see changes made to the history curriculum today (Bedford 2023, pp. 99).
Research Questions:
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How do Generation Z students perceive the content and impact of the historical education they received in UK schools?
Which relevant cognitive skills do Generation Z students believe were improved by their history education and which do they believe were less so?
Do Generation Z students who are overall satisfied with their history education in schools perceive a lower need for improvements in the quality of historical education?
Methodology:
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Quantitative online surveys will be used to conduct this study, as they are particularly suited to these research questions for a variety of reasons. However, the population of Generation Z students who were schooled in the UK is broad and thus, potentially fraught with challenges when gathering a suitably representative sample. But, as Evans points out (2018, pp. 856), a large proportion of the world population now has access to the internet via digital devices such as smart phones or laptops. This proportion of the digitally connected population is even higher among Generation Z students in the UK, and so by conducting this study within the framework of an online survey, this makes allowances for a greater breadth of data collection. Feehan and Cobb demonstrated this potential in action, as in 2019 they used online surveys to gather a large-scale empirical test with over 15,000 participants across five countries (2019, pp. 2377) illustrating just how wide-ranging online surveys allow a study’s sample to be.
Moreover, it is vital for this study to collect as diverse a sample of Gen Z participants as possible to produce wholly representative data. The use of online surveys is arguably the best method to provide an overview of Generation Z students’ perceptions of history education, as using online forms of data collection presents the research in a manner that is highly distributable and accessible to that specific demographic (Groves 2011, pp. 867). In their 2022 study, Thathsarani et al. utilised this digital advantage with young populations to efficiently collect a sizeable sample of 387 undergraduate Sri Lankan students through an online questionnaire (Thathsarani et al. 2022). Thus, this research is a good case study showing the effectiveness of online surveys targeted at younger generations.
Furthermore, as this study is looking to compare different data points surrounding people’s perceptions of their history education, as Fowler points out (2014, pp. 70), surveys are useful tools for collecting quantitative data that can be statistically analysed to find potential patterns and correlations within said data. These instances can then be clearly presented visually through charts, making a review of the findings of this study as intuitive as possible. Otike et al. (2022) for example, used numerous graphs and illustrations developed using Google Forms to illustrate the data they collected from 60 international students surrounding their perceptions on the role of university digital libraries.
Moreover, surveys allow for consistency and standardisation of results (Bradburn 2004, pp. 326), adding to the comparability of responses, which is fundamental to this study. However, as the data I will be gathering is strictly quantitative in nature, this study will lack any qualitative responses that may have provided more nuance and context (Beatty 1995, pp. 147). Thus, further research should be done into qualitive analysis of Generation Z’s perceptions of their history education in schools to achieve a well-rounded exploration of the topic (Rollett 2021).
Survey Structure:
There are 23 questions to this pilot study’s online survey, each split into four different sections titled: Background, Curriculum Coverage, Impact Assessment and Feedback. As many of these questions follow the same format, by dividing the survey into said sections, the aim was to consolidate related responses together and keep the participants engaged throughout (Bradburn 2004, pp. 332).
The Background section obtains necessary demographic information, such as the desired age range and level of history education achieved. This made sure all participants fell within the Generation Z parameters and were above the age of 18, as the goal was to obtain the perceptions of those who had finished their school history education, allowing them to assess the impact of it with hindsight that would provide richer conclusions.
Within the Curriculum Coverage section, I asked participants to select which topics in both British and World history they were taught at school, as well as their opinions on whether they felt any of said topics were under or overrepresented. This section was crucial in determining which areas of history were the most prolific in UK history education, providing important context for participants’ later perceptions of the impact of said education.
Within the Impact Assessment section, I asked participants the extent to which they believed their history education affected numerous cognitive skills, such as researching, critical thinking and analytical writing. This section helps to gauge which positive traits were impacted by participants’ history education, so we can see whether certain skills are more developed than others within said education.
Finally, in the Feedback section, I asked participants various questions around their satisfaction with their history education, which underpins the whole study and can help gauge any differences between demographics.
Sample Selection:
The main sample of this study would recruit hundreds of Generation Z participants across a diverse range of backgrounds using probability sampling (Aldridge 2001, pp. 64). However, this initial pilot sample consists of 16 recruits, selected from peers, friends and family, with a conscious effort to select from them as wide a demographic range as possible. Each participant was either of UK origin or had attended a form of primary and/or secondary education within the UK.
This pilot sampling method was chosen as it was the most efficient process to gather participants given the time constraints (Fowler 2014, pp. 16). Despite the sample being relatively eclectic in nature, only two participants were born outside the UK and as they were all my friends and peers in some form, the participants are likely to share similar social and political values. This may have played a factor in the results of this initial sample, as history is a field ‘at the mercy of politics’ (Verschaffel and Wils 2012, pp. 1). Thus, it is important to remember these shortcomings regarding this initial pilot sample when analysing the results.
Ethical Considerations:
It was crucial to have an informed consent section at the start of the survey, to confirm that all participants were over the age of 18, understood the purpose of the study and were made aware of how their data will be collected and used (Fowler 2014, pp. 143). There was also the option for them to view a more detailed explanation of the research if they wished and participants were made aware of the option to leave the survey at any time. Moreover, all participants remained anonymous throughout, and their data was securely stored throughout the pilot study (Fowler 2014, pp. 144). This was achieved by avoiding any questions that collected personally identifiable information unless necessary, such as in the case of a participant’s age-range.
Analysis and Conclusions:
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In terms of students’ perception of the content they received within their history education in school, although there were many topics covered for Generation Z students, 38% of participants were dissatisfied with the range of topics covered, with the same proportion believing that they lacked a diverse array of perspectives. This accompanied by the responses of the 67% who felt that some topics were over and underrepresented, indicates that many Generation Z students believe that Britain’s colonial past is underrepresented in school education (Moncrieffe 2020, pp. 53) whereas the world wars were overrepresented.
Analytical writing skills were perceived by 50% of participants to have had a moderate or higher improvement through their history education, whilst this was true of 81% for historical knowledge, 50% for critical thinking / evaluating and 63% for an ability to contextualise current world events. This suggests that overall, history education played a sizeable role in improving the cognitive and literary skills of Generation Z students.
However, cognitive skills relating to oratory, namely communication and debating, saw a marked decrease in perceived improvement, with 37.5% of participants believing their history education had no impact on their communication skills, while 68.8% thought the same of debating.
This could indicate a significant need for more open dialogue within history classes, where skills surrounding the effective relay of information and discussion of ideas are properly prioritised to the same level as more literary and independent skills.
Arguably the most intriguing finding from this pilot survey came in the Feedback section, as 94% of participants felt at least a moderate need for change to improve the quality of history education in schools.
Despite this overwhelming consensus however, 50% of participants still felt overall satisfied to some degree with their history education, with only 25% claiming to be dissatisfied with it to some degree.
This suggests that Generation Z students who are overall satisfied with their history education in schools also tend to perceive a need for improvements in the quality of historical education. I believe there are a few potential explanations for this apparent discrepancy. First, by providing the option for change within a question in this survey, participants may have felt more inclined to accept it, even though they may not have felt it necessary enough to advocate for without this prompting.
Alternatively, this discrepancy could suggest that the standard of history education in UK schools is high enough for most participants to consider satisfactory, whilst most also believe there is room for improvement within this. Moreover, participants may have also believed that the education system needs overall reform, rather than just in history education, which may also have contributed to these statistics.
Summary:
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In summary, I believe that this pilot study has gathered some interesting initial conclusions, however upon reflection, there are some areas of improvement needed before further research. Firstly, the format and majority of questions asked were clear and concise enough for all participants to complete the survey and engage fully with its content. Moreover, as the results above demonstrate, there was a wide range of both positive and negative responses within answers and thus, it appears that the questions asked were suitably neutral and did not lead participants into specific ways of thinking.
However, to improve the study, I would change the 1-5 scale for questions in the Feedback section, as when analysing the results, it was unclear whether participants were treating ‘3’ as a neutral answer, like the Impact Assessment section, or in the intended manner, where the scale becomes ever increasingly positive beyond ‘1’. This caused some confusion and thus, I would replace the 1-5 scale with word prompts, for example not engaged at all, somewhat engaged, engaged, very engaged etc., as this would lead to less ambiguous data.
Moreover, I would add a question after How would you rate your historical knowledge today on a scale of 1 (Very Minimal) to 5 (Very Extensive)?, that would determine whether the participant believed school education was the main factor for their current historical knowledge. This would help gather some interesting insight into whether school history education played the biggest role in a participant’s current historical knowledge, or whether they had sought out further historical knowledge beyond their formal education.
Furthermore, I believe more can be added to the study to distinguish participants from state and public schools, so that interesting data can be captured when comparing their responses to perceptions of their historical education. This could lead to some interesting conclusions that could shed further light on the surprising uptick in GCSE History and history engagement within state schools which has been seen in recent years (Royal Historical Society 2024).
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