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History in the Early Years is an innovative and accessible guide to helping young chldren explore the past through their environment, family history and story. It shows how the requirements of the early years curriculum can be met.

This chapter is relevant for educators in early years settings, in primary schools and beyond. You will see from Chapter 1 that, for a variety of reasons, the aims of education and the degree of political influence and central control over all dimensions of education are dynamic: they change as society changes. Teachers have had little encouragement recently to question what or how to teach. And 'primary education suffers more than its share of scare-mongering and hyperbole, not to mention deliberate myth-making' (Hofkins and Northen, 2009, p. 5). The report continues: 'Isn't it time to move on from the populism, polarisation and name-calling which for too long have supplanted real educational debate and progress? Children deserve better from the nation's leaders and shapers of opinion.' The Teachers' Standards (DfE, 2013), which apply to teachers regardless of their career stage, do not expect you to explore questions about the aims, purposes and value of education. However, they do require teachers to, 'act with honesty and integrity …and to be self-critical' (p. 7). If children's lives are not to be at the mercy of political whim, it is essential that teachers learn the skills of robust, critical evaluation, based on their reading, experience and reflection, in order to develop strong personal philosophies about what, how and why we teach children, and to interpret changes in ways which are professionally valid and have integrity. It is important to learn scepticism, and have a concern about the larger questions and a deep understanding of what we teach, to have time to reflect, research and study. This chapter aims to help you do this. First, it gives an overview of the questions philosophers have asked about education in the past, and ask currently, and shows you how to engage with them. Then it links these to theories about how children learn.

I am delighted to edit this issue of Education 3-13, which focuses on the implementation of the English National Curriculum for history at Key Stages 1 and 2 (5-11 years old) (DfE 2013 "The National Curriculum in England" www.gov.uk/dfe.nationalcurriculum). It is discussed through the lens of recommendations, which apply specifically to history, in 'Children, Their Lives, Their Education: Final Report and Recommendations of the Cambridge Primary Review' (Alexander 2010 'Children, Their World, Their Education: Final Report and Recommendations of the Cambridge Primary Review. Abingdon: Routledge). This is the most extensive report on primary education in England for 40 years, based on the findings of 28 research surveys, analysing and basing arguments on data collected from an extensive range of sources, including educational organisations, teachers, parents and children from all over England. It combines evidence on recent developments with a vision of how primary education should be. The Cambridge Primary Review Trust (CPRT) which supported schools and promoted a vision for primary education after the publication of the report has now sadly closed down. Nonetheless, the influence of the Cambridge Primary Review remains seminal in the field. Using it as a focus for examining the History curriculum continues its influence and status. In structuring this issue of Education 3-13, contributors were invited to write with a focus on one of the key concepts in the review which are relevant to teaching history in ways which are transforming, and to the National Curriculum for history (DfE 2013 2013 "The National Curriculum in England" www.gov.uk/dfe.nationalcurriculum). The concepts selected were: oracy, creativity, curiosity, excellence, locality, local, national and global links, chronology and cross-curricularity. The following articles discuss recent research in history education, linked to one of these concepts. The National Curriculum for History (2013) is an endangered curriculum. It can be marginalised because of the accountability invested in English and mathematics and so interpreted merely as a transmission of facts. However, the Cambridge Primary Review (CPR) presented pressing arguments for a pedagogy in which history is amongst those subjects regarded as central to the curriculum. It is a powerful reminder that history remains in need of public, professional and political recognition.