Facts meet feeling through Shalina’s all-encompassing, exciting approach to teaching. Winner of Teacher of the Year in a Secondary School from the Pearson Teaching Awards Trust in 2018, she and her team of educators at Claremont High School, based in North London, have worked diligently to bring diversity into the national curriculum for History. “The key has been to give our students as broad a variety of perspectives as possible,” she stated. “Many textbooks don’t lend themselves to that. There may be some limitation in teaching this way with GCSEs, which have set materials, but there’s flexibility at A-Level.”
Here, Shalina opted to teach ‘100 Years of Indian History’ as her free academic area where fellow secondary-school teachers have been encouraged to branch out into the world history of their expert personal choice. “Exploring it during my undergrad, I wanted the opportunity to be able to unpack South-Asian chronology, such as the Mogul Empire and Indian Independence, highlighting the particulars. In addition to Mahatma Gandhi, there were many significant figures involved in fighting for the autonomy of the country.” Indeed, Subhas Chandra Bose was another prominent nationalist while the time of the Moguls heralded its own foundational influences on the nation’s contemporary culture. From cuisine to class structure, India’s ancient influencers had as much impact as the Medieval or Victorian era on Britain.
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“There’s so much history: that’s the great thing about it. You always find a new source that surprises you. There is no, one person in the world who knows everything – even us history teachers!” In short, as opposed to simply listing a long line of dates, Shalina actually emotionally invests in her humanistic discipline. Indeed, Complementing the detailed depth, her fun and colourful delivery has also elevated the expressive teacher. Shalina is known for dressing up in distinctive costumes and sporting quirky props in the classroom. This has recently evolved into an online resource, The History Corridor, which the teacher launched on the graphic platform of Instagram, initially to keep her students inspired as they made the tricky switch to working from home. “With its first post published in March,” the site has gained universal traction.
“An extension of my lesson-planning, the typical demographic of The History Corridor is now the age-range of 18 - 45! The readers are usually comprised of people who either loved history at school and want to build on it, reclaiming the subject, or those who didn't really enjoy it at school, but have developed a new appreciation.” Shalina even schedules her posts according to momentous times of the year for maximum effect: “I’m currently working on an entry in line with the anniversary of Queen Victoria’s death which is happening later this month. Trawling through a few books, I’ve discovered that she was buried with some strange stuff e.g., a plaster cast of Prince Albert’s hand! Also, she insisted on being buried with as much jewellery as possible. There must be so many historians lamenting, wanting to exhume this amazing jewellery, which I’ll bet is linked to the empire! That’s definitely going into the intro.”
Indeed, with its bright, magazine-like headlines, The History Corridor vividly recovers insights into the very margin of cultural context to offer readers articles not otherwise available in the journalistic mainstream. This includes an empathetic spectrum of stories. From accounts of immigration to the US’ famed Ellis Island to homages to politically powerful women such as Barbara Beese of the British Black Panthers, Shalina widely covers the deeper world of the socially unsaid. No wonder then that The History Corridor came to the fore this year during the BlackLivesMatter protests, fundamentally committed to the progressive core of the cause. “People have been amazing at sharing articles – the response has been immense.” Indeed, Shalina also drives open-mindedness within her own department. She collaborates copiously with colleagues to discuss previously underrepresented viewpoints so that minority voices can be incorporated into the communication of their history. “We’d recently read ‘Black and British: A Forgotten History’ by David Olusoga. This completely changed how we taught the slave trade. Similarly, we’ve read Hallie Reubenfold’s The Five, which is a take on Jack-the-Ripper’s victims from the perspective of the women.
Not every school is willing to adapt, accepting a variety of answers and constantly reflecting on what they’re teaching. It’s important not to be too precious. History is vast; you will always be exchanging and expanding your understanding and re-calibrating your knowledge e.g., Emma Clark was apparently first-known Black-British footballer, but a couple of years ago it came to light that historians had wrongly identified her: it was another woman entirely.” And so, more than demonstrating the strength of modern teaching, Shalina’s passionate pedagogy shows how history itself is the ultimate storyteller. Arguably the grandest narrative, it is then crucial to make it the most objective and robust. “Inevitably, told accounts will be shaped by the morals of the time.” In forging an increasingly multifarious bridge with the past, we enhance the chance of achieving true inclusivity in the future.
“An extension of my lesson-planning, the typical demographic of The History Corridor is now the age-rangeof 18 - 45! The readers are usually comprised of people who either loved history at school and want to build on it, reclaiming the subject, or those who didn't really enjoy it at school, but have developed a new appreciation.”
I: @thehistorycorridor
