History Teacher: Job Profile and Role

Have you always been intrigued by the days of yore? Do you think that events that happened thousands or hundreds of years ago are way more fascinating than anything the digital age has to offer? If your answer to these questions is a huge and resounding “Yes!”, we may have the perfect job for you: the job of a history teacher.

In this blog, we will tell you all you need to know about this particular teaching job. You will find out what your responsibilities are, which salaries you can expect, which qualifications and which skills you need. To help you visualise your future job as a history teacher, we will give you a first insight into a day in the life of a history teacher. We conclude this blog by giving you three important tips for thriving as a history teacher.

Short Summary

• As a history teacher, you are in charge of teaching your students all there is to know about history. This includes teaching them important dates as well as important events and about the key players of any given time in history.
• As a history teacher, you are responsible for adhering to different cultural backgrounds and their respective sensitivities. It is your job as a history teacher to make sure that you do not overstep a line, thus, inadvertently hurting your students.
• As a history teacher, you are responsible for planning a history curriculum. This includes developing a teaching plan as well as marking exam papers at the end of the term.

Job description

The job of a history teacher is to teach his or her students about key events and facts in history. In understanding the past, a history teacher can help students to develop analytical and critical thinking skills. As a history teacher, you will teach history both inside and outside the classroom, making this job a very diversified one. A history teacher is also responsible for developing curricula, marking term papers and communicating with students, their parents, and the department heads.

Responsibilities

• Incorporating Diverse Perspectives
• Classroom Management
• Parent Communication
• Individualised Support
• Classroom Instruction
• Curriculum Planning
• Cultural Sensitivity
• Assessment
• Supervision
• Grading

Different types of History Teachers

• Heritage Educator
• Private History Tutor
• Educational Consultant
• Primary School History Teacher
• Secondary School History Teacher

Salary

History teachers in the UK are typically paid between £30,000 and £40,000 annually. The overall salary depends on the history teaching role, for example, a primary or a secondary school history teacher. Note that a heritage educator or a history consultant can earn up to £48,000 per year. Furthermore, the annual salary is affected by the teaching location, the employer, and the work experience.

Working hours

Typically, history teachers work regular classroom hours from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The total weekly working hours therefore amount to 35 hours. Note that your working hours are not as clear-cut as that. As a history teacher, you need to be prepared to work both in the evening and at the weekends, for example, to attend teacher-parent meetings and mark coursework.

Your working hours might also increase when you plan a field trip. Although these trips tend to take place during regular school times, they can also be scheduled as extra-curricular activities, in which case they can take place on days off.

Employers

History teachers can find employment in various sectors, schools being the most obvious ones. Depending on your teacher training, you can find work with primary or secondary schools. Alternatively, you can look into jobs at heritage sites and museums. It is also possible to teach history at a university, although this may require different qualifications and training.

Qualifications

The typical approach to becoming a history teacher is to earn an academic degree in a relevant field, such as history, classics, or archaeology. Alternatively, you can become a history teacher by completing an apprenticeship. Appropriate apprenticeships can be a degree-level teaching apprenticeship for future primary school history teachers or a Teacher Level 6 Degree Apprenticeship for future secondary school history teachers. Note that you might need the following diploma when you want to work as a qualified history teacher: a PDGE (Professional Graduate Diploma in Education) and a SCQF Level 11 in history.

Skills

As a history teacher, you naturally need strong communication skills. How else will you be able to teach your chosen subject, if not by talking? Besides, as a history teacher, you should have strong presentation and organisational skills. Do these sound far too boring for you? Well, you will need them – and the good news is, you will also need the following skills, which may well be more interesting to you (and your students).

Passion

History is often considered a superfluous and rather boring subject. What does it interest us if Richard III lost a decisive battle? What importance does it have that Hannibal did not manage to conquer Rome? Students who think history is just a sequence of negligible facts and events have likely had to endure passionless history lessons. Therefore, you, as a history teacher, should be passionate about your subject. Instil a similar passion in your students, and make them see how important even a minuscule historical detail might be. Also, be passionate about different approaches to teaching history, for example, digital tours or field trips to museums and heritage sites.

Storytelling

You may remember your student time at school. You might also remember your history lessons, which might not always have been the most riveting lessons you had to endure. Until recently, history tended to be quite dry and consisted of remembering important dates and people. As important as it is to know these key dates and figures, it is even more important to make these things come alive. How? By telling stories, which ultimately is how historical events have been passed on through the centuries. For instance, if you can make a medieval king come alive by telling a story your students can connect with, you will be a brilliant history teacher. You will also be a history teacher who ensures that your students understand the importance of historical events and the way they shape our present and future.

Cultural Sensitivity

History is a patchwork quilt of different nationalities, cultures, religions, morals, and ethical viewpoints. As a history teacher, you need to be uber-sensitive when it comes to these cultural differences and nuances. If you lack this vital skill, you may well get into trouble and put your foot in it without meaning any harm. Work on your cultural sensitivity skills and make sure that these go hand in hand with a strong sense of respect, understanding, and diplomacy.

Career Path

Your career path as a history teacher starts with your first teaching post. Depending on your work performance and ambition, you can think about becoming a specialist leader of historical education, curriculum leader, deputy head, or headteacher.

Educational Background

Typically, you become a history teacher by earning an academic degree. Appropriate fields of study can be archaeology, classics, or history in general. The latter also offers you the option to specialise in a certain epoch, such as ancient history, medieval history, or modern history. Usually, a Bachelor’s degree suffices to become a history teacher. However, a Master’s degree or a PhD can further your career prospects as a history teacher.

If the academic approach is not the right path for you, you can think about doing a Teacher Level 6 Degree Apprenticeship or a degree-level teaching apprenticeship. These refer to secondary school history teachers and primary school history teachers, respectively.

Training

Before you start your first job as a history teacher, you need to complete your teacher training. Typically, this already takes place when you are still studying to become a teacher. You are required to complete several weeks or months of teaching practice in a school. Usually, you have a mentor who supports and assesses you while you teach history. Your training as a history teacher may also include undergraduate teacher training, postgraduate teacher training (PGCE), and school-centred initial teacher training (SCITT). These trainings usually also involve passing the relevant exams.

Continuous Learning

Your way to becoming a history teacher has already been lined with a myriad number of books, lessons, and training. In short, you are already used to continuously learn. Your learning curve does not stop with completing your degree and training. As a history teacher, you need to continue learning – on an almost daily basis. History may be all done and dusted but there are still discoveries and developments you need to be aware of.

A Day in the Life of a History Teacher

Planning your history lessons and developing a curriculum are two things that can shape your working day as a history teacher. Naturally, teaching history is another important part of your job as a history teacher. But what other things shape your working day in this profession? Let’s take a look at three things you will likely do regularly as a history teacher.

Plan a Field Trip

History cannot only be taught in a classroom and through books. History can also be taught on-site. How about planning a field trip to a historical site with your class? Fortunately, the UK is full of museums and heritage sites, such as castles and battlefields, that will turn a history lesson into an adventure.

Juggle a huge Number of Perspectives

As a history teacher, you know that history is made up of a huge number of different perspectives and political viewpoints. Therefore, dealing with different approaches is something you are familiar with. These different viewpoints do not stop in a chronicle or a report. You will be faced with them in your classroom. Each one of your students has his or her opinion. Taking these on board can be both challenging and a balancing act. Nevertheless, juggling these different opinions and perspectives is a daily task of your life as a history teacher.

Administration and Marking Exam Papers

Yes, administration and marking exam papers are also part of your life as a history teacher. They may not be the most interesting tasks you have to perform. They are, however, two rather important tasks. You not only need to mark papers you also need to file them and do reports on them. The time spent on these tasks can add up to several hours or even days, in which case, they shape way more than just one day in the life of a history teacher.

Unique Approaches to the Job of a History Teacher

Did you know that as a history teacher, you have multiple tools at your disposal that make teaching history even more interesting? One option is to take your students on a field trip, either in the United Kingdom or abroad. You can also think about role plays or reenactments. They bring history to life and also mean that your students get actively involved in recreating the past. This can contribute to a better understanding of history and its importance.

Tips for Thriving as a History Teacher

If you want to thrive as a history teacher, you should not only continuously learn. As a history teacher, you should embrace further ways that help you thrive in this profession.

In this section, we will take a close look at three tips that help you thrive as a history teacher:

• Define your main historical interests
• Become friends with digital tools
• Think outside the history box

Define your Main Historical Interests

This tip makes a lot of sense if you are thinking of becoming a heritage educator. Let’s assume that you want to work in the Tower of London or a similar historical site. In this case, your main historical interests must focus on the “high times” of these buildings, including the main historical players and events. When you successfully define your historical area of expertise, you will thrive as a history teacher – or heritage educator.

Become Friends with Digital Tools

A lot of historical and cultural institutions are offering digital tours of their heritage sites and/or museums. Naturally, digital tours imply that a certain knowledge of digital tools can be mandatory. However, digital tools are not limited to knowing how to browse a website or how to book a digital tour. As a history teacher – or a historian in general – you need to be familiar with the most frequently used research tools and websites. Becoming friends with the relevant digital tools is, therefore, another important tip to thrive as a history teacher.

Think Outside the History Box

Yes, we have told you that you should define your historical area of expertise. This, however, does not exclude thinking outside the history box. On the contrary – a good history teacher can see different approaches and viewpoints concerning various historical events and people. Thinking outside the history box also means that you may look at unconventional ways of interpreting historical facts and teaching them.

One addendum to these three tips for thriving as a history teacher: try to be as objective as possible. Only an impartial history teacher (with a few noteworthy exceptions) is a good history teacher.

Frequently Asked Questions