Meet our Winner

In May we held our annual Making a Difference Awards. Staff, students, alumni and people from the local community were recognised for their commitment to social responsibility; from contributions to community collaborations through to a commitment to environmental sustainability and public engagement.

In this issue we hear about Professor Claire Alexander, who won the Outstanding Benefit to Society through Reseach category for her ‘History Lessons/History Matters: creating a diverse history curriculum’ initiative.

Claire’s work addresses the issue of teaching cultural diversity and multiculturalism in schools. Nearly a quarter of the school-age population of Britain’s schools are of Black or minority ethnic heritage. Despite this, cultural diversity and multiculturalism are often not taught well in schools and BME young people are underrepresented in the study of history in schools and in higher education. Claire worked with the independent think tank Runnymede Trust, to influence government policy on the teaching of diverse British histories in the national curriculum. Using oral and local histories to explore migration to Britain, they developed a joined-up approach to resourcing, supporting and engaging pupils and teachers in the diverse histories of migration. To find out more watch this short film about Claire’s work.

You can find our more about our winners on the Award pages of the social responsibility website.