How Do we Teach Pupils about Elizabeth I

I have finished reading Elton and about to start Michael A R Graves' Elizabethan Parliaments 1559-1601, a seminar studies book. I thought about what I could put in my blog about Elizabeth's reign. I have learned a lot from Elton, even if mostly it is narrative I have found him hugely informative. However, rather than writing about what I have learned about Elizabeth, because I have already been doing lots of that and because I am no longer sure where I would start, I have decided to try to voice my thoughts about how we might teach the topic at school.

This is where I am currently much less sure of myself and my knowledge. I think that the topic could be complex and so breaking it down into smaller themes would be very useful; provide the learning in smaller chunks so it appears less daunting, that is always a good start in my experience. I have already talked about three key themes to Elizabeth's reign and I believe that the key to teaching them is to give each some reference to the modern world and thereby help students to understand the topic better through association with their own experience and terms of reference. For example, the current economic crisis and with it the austerity budget are a good modern reflection for the poverty of the crown and government of Elizabeth.

We are still at war , in Afghanistan, and this can provide the link to the state of war which existed from about 1588 to the end of the Reign in 1603. However, I am not so sure this link stands up so well except as a "compare and contrast". The religious theme can also link to our present experience. Although we are very much more a secular people religion continues to arouse and divide us. Now the religious divide is not between Catholic and Protestant, Church of England and Puritan, it is primarily between Christian and Muslim. These tensions, the perceived threat we feel other religions pose to our way of life, are the modern equivalent of the threat Catholicism and to a lesser extent Puritanism posed to Elizabethan England's way of life in the minds of ordinary people. It can arouse passions now, but 450 years ago the passions aroused were much stronger. There is the perceived threat to national security now and the link to the "War on Terror"; during Elizabeth's reign there was the very real threat of war with Spain and other catholic powers. In fact so real was the threat that it became a reality, the Spanish Armada being one of the results of this.

There are other themes to Elizabethan England, lesser themes to my way of thinking. The growth of popularity and arrogance, if not of real power, of Essex towards the very end of the reign, is a throwback to the politics of Kingmakers and overmighty subjects and their use of personal adherents and retainers to influence. That Essex failed shows how far England had come since the Tudor dynasty came to the throne in 1485.

The problem of Mary I think is a hard one. How do you get young adults to understand the jealousies and plots and rivalries between to relatives? To be fair, I think many will already understand some of this. The key here is to tell a story of two ambitious people, each similar but at the same time very different. One of them, Mary, apparently coveting the throne of the other, Elizabeth. Mary also turns out to be more beautiful, though beauty is in the and I struggle to see it personally, and is a focus point for the much feared Catholic insurgency. What is remarkable is Elizabeth's great tolerance for she resisted all attempts to execute Mary for nearly 20 years.

When we talk about the great spirit of oceanic adventure in Elizabethan times we can really bring stories to the party. Drake and Hawkins et al are a rich vein and shouold strike a cord with many. Driven by the thoughts of "get rich quick" schemes to rob Spanish treasure fleets and the desire for fame through magnificent discovery only to be tempered later by the demands for maturity that the war brought. This is much like life in an allegorical way.

The key to all this then is to link the period to students' modern terms of reference, their experiences and motivations, and to tell stories.

Some things I have yet to do are, watch a video of Elizabeth, perhaps one of the Cate Blanchett films, look at some portraits and visit Kenilworth Castle.