The Writing Of The British Empire In The History Textbooks Of British Secondary Schools

"British Empire" was once the largest colonial empire in the world.British Empire research has always been a popular field in the study of British history in England and abroad,and Empire history is an indispensable content in British secondary education.Oxford University Press is the authoritative publishing house for the publishing of British textbooks.In this paper,the history textbook of the third stage of secondary education published by the Oxford University is selected as the main research object.In this way,we will have a deeper understanding of the history writing in British secondary education.This article can be divided into three parts.The first part is an introduction,which mainly explains the research background and significance of the study,the domestic and foreign research reviews on British history education and the British Empire,the research objects and methods of this article,and the innovations of this article.The second part is the main body of this article.Chapter one is an overview of the standards and contents of the Oxford third Period history textbook.British Education is divided into five stages,Early Years Foundation Stage,Primary Education Stage,Secondary Education Stage,Further Education Stage and Higher Education Stage Education),each phase respectively corresponding to different age groups and school years.Key Stage is formulated by the public education system,in view of the students of different ages,set up different expectations of knowledge ability,based on tests and evaluations.Key Stage 3 equals the third period,was the last compulsory study period of secondary education.This article focuses on The Rise and Fall of The British Empire,which is a required textbook of Key Stage 3.The compilation of middle school textbooks in Britain is closely combined with the national curriculum standards of history.Five national curriculum standards of history subject have been promulgated in British history as the basis for compiling textbooks.In 1991,the British Ministry of education and science promulgated and implemented the first national history curriculum standard in history.This standard not only set a unified ability goal of history,but also formulated learning syllabus and examination syllabus.In this curriculum standard,history subjects are set as compulsory courses in "key stage 1-4".In the second national curriculum standard promulgated in 1995,on the basis of the first national curriculum standard,the curriculum content and key elements in each stage of learning plan are more detailed,and history is changed to be a compulsory course in "key stage 1-3".The third national curriculum standard of history was issued in 1999,which increased the elaboration of theory and the strictness and logicality of the overall framework.In 2008,the fourth national curriculum standard of history was not a new version,but a revised version based on the version released in 1999.It focused on the adjustment of the ability,objectives and learning scope of the third stage of middle school,and set up four new comprehensive learning fields in the fourth stage.The fifth national curriculum standard of history was issued in 2013.The standard continues the characteristics of the former four standards which attach importance to the goal of ability,added historical knowledge points in the main learning stage,and put forward the idea of paying equal attention to knowledge points learning and ability training for the first time.This paper takesTake The rise and fall of the British Empire as a model,giving a general overview of the bibliography from the perspectives of the catalogue structure and the types of historical materials,and illustrates the value of the bibliography as a special reading material in history education.The publishing house of this book is Oxford University Press,which is one of the main publishing houses of British history textbooks.It is authoritative.Among the special teaching materials of the third period,only the Oxford University Press has published the monographic textbook on the theme of the British Empire.Therefore,it is representative to select the Oxford Edition of history teaching book to investigate the British Empire in British secondary education textbooks.Chapter two is the key point of this paper.The author analyzes the British Empire in the textbook,focusing on the description of the origin and development of the British Empire in the textbook.The origin of the British Empire is interpreted in the textbook as the product of the great discovery of navigation.The colonial expansion with the great age of navigation is the starting point for Britain to lead to the modern empire.The establishment of the North American colonies was the most important initial stage in the development of the British Empire.The transformation of the English countries into the British Empire was synchronous with the establishment of the North American colonies.In addition to this thematic textbook of Oxford edition,other general history chronological textbooks have also written the origin of the British Empire in their layout.These textbooks are basically consistent with the "The Rise and Fall of the British Empire" in the discussion of the origin of the empire.That is to say,the emergence of empire was a product of the great maritime era.The geographical location of Britain,the pursuit of material wealth and overseas trade,and the development of nation-states jointly gave birth to the emergence of empire.In addition,through the important chapters of the book,the description of India is studied which is the most important colony of the British Empire.And the article also explains why India became "the jewel on the crown",so that India occupies a very important position in the British Empire.Chapter three examines the British Empire in the textbooks,focusing on the characteristics of the British Empire reflected in the history textbooks of middle school from three aspects: the driving force of the Empire,the mode of Empire rule and the expansion of the Empire.The first is that the driving force of the Empire's development has shifted from mercantilism to liberalism;the second is that the management of the colony is initiated from the people to the government;the third is the colonial governance model represented by the model of immigration autonomy,colonial company and government's overall control.The third part is the conclusion,which analyzes the importance of learning the history of Empire in middle school.By studying the historical facts of the British Empire,thinking about the value of the Empire and reflecting on the behavior of the Empire,the students can understand the Empire and have a deep understanding of the Empire.On the basis of understanding the Empire,they can achieve the effect of emotional identification,and stimulate the students' enthusiasm for learning the whole British history,so as to make middle school students learn English history at the same time,British students had a considerable degree of understanding and thinking about modern British history.History is just a mirror.The history of the British Empire has both positive and negative significance for Britain itself.The Empire has brought both glory and decline to Britain.Comprehensive history education is of great significance to the formation of a correct concept of history education,which has an important impact on the shaping of British citizens and the development of British society.The study of the history of the British Empire is also essential to the learning of national history and world history in Chinese history teaching.The study of the history of British Empire in British middle school textbooks is not only of positive significance to the history education of middle schools in China,but also the process of Britain's going global shown in the history of British Empire will bring deep thinking on China's further development in the progress of globalization.