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A Walk In The Park

"A Walk In The Park" is an opportunity for PGDE students to explore interdisciplinary learning. We will be using Kelvingrove Park as a 'lens' to examine various contemporary issues, ways of thinking and ways of seeing, aiming to explore opportunities for learning in, through and about a local, outdoor context to support the Broad General Education.

We will focus on using materials, ideas and stimuli that we meet in our everyday lives as inspiration for learning and deep and contextualised engagement with the curriculum. The materials can be accessed and used in different ways to support and challenge your thinking, and you may find them useful as you think about planning for learning within placement and as you look ahead to your induction or probation.

Index

Empire

Histories in Britain

The black British history you may not know about suggests that although schools often teach effectively about the Atlantic slave trade and the US Civil Rights struggle, other aspects of Britain's Black British history may be harder for us to talk about. The article highlights a much older Black British history that goes back to Roman times.

Picture of Ivory Bangle Lady

You can find more information about Ivory Bangle Lady from York Museum, alongside more information about York's Roman Black population.

Histories in Scotland

Pride and Prejudice: Scotland's complicated Black history explores both distant and more recent Scottish Black history, including a man and woman who were likely to be Scotland's first Black footballers. How a slave-owner's daughter made a life in Scotland describes the life of Eliza Junor, whose mother was an enslaved woman, and who was educated and lived in Scotland.

This picture shows James Drummond, 2nd Duke of Perth, and a child he enslaved. The metal collar the child had to wear is clearly visible. You can explore the experiences of enslaved black boys at Enslaved Black Boys where you can see an example of such a collar held in the Glasgow Museums collection.

James Drummond and a child

Legacies of Slavery in Glasgow Museums and Collections includes a wealth of material about Glasgow's colonialist history, including a description of Robert Nutter Campbell, Country Gent and Slaveowner which describes the source of his wealth in the labour of enslaved people, and A Free Press but not a Free People which discusses the advertising for sale of people in a newspaper owned and run by a Scottish man in Grenada. Another discussion of newspaper articles and slavery can be found at Runaway Slaves in Britain: bondage, freedom and race in the eighteenth century. The third section of the Slavery in Scotland podcast gives the story of Bob, "young, male, and very unhappy." who made many attempts at resistence through flight.

1745 - An Untold Story of Slavery from Moyo Akande on Vimeo is a BAFTA nominated short film about the escape of two young enslaved women in Scotland in 1745. It invites us to consider that even while Scotland was fighting for independence, its economy was deeply entwined with the colonial slave trade.

It Wisnae Us is a website which explores Glasgow's historical connection with slavery. The Heritage Trail includes information about the first African American to graduate as an MD, who did so in Glasgow. Douglass in Scotland includes an account of the visit to Glasgow of Frederick Douglass, a man who was enslaved and who escaped, sought refuge in Britain, and then returned to America as an anti-slavery campaigner. You might also wish to listen to the Scotland's Black History which is available via Youtube

What's Left Out: Re-Thinking the Abolition of the Slave Trade invites us to think about what's missing from the British Abolitionist story, and engage critically with the idea that the British Empire ended slavery.

Figure 1 Unaccessioned Anti-Slavery Medal. Location C24/T8. Silver 1787 - 1807 Unknown maker Diameter: 32 mms from Beniba Centre for Slavery Studies, University of Glasgow

Kelvingrove Park and Empire

In 1901 Kelvingrove Park hosted the International Exhibition, a celebration of Empire. Images from the exhibition can be seen here

A water slide on the river Kelvin

It is still possible to see echoes of the exhibition in today's Kelvingrove Park.

Edward Said - Framed: The Politics of Stereotypes in Newsis a short video produced by the news organisation Al Jazeera which discusses Orientalism - the idea that the West produces and uses stereotypes of the East in order to justify its idea of itself. It might be useful if you are thinking about the legacies of colonialism.

Black and Scottish

In Black and Scottish: 'Are you a Protestant Rasta or a Catholic Rasta?' the BBC shares some stories of Black people living in Scotland, including Graham Campbell, Scotland's first Rasta councillor. You can find out more about Graham Campbell here. or see him take a tour of Glasgow's slavery history.Flag Up Scotland looks at the living connections between Scotland and Jamaica through the fascinating story of the Jamaican flag.

You can take a tour around Liverpool, Glasgow and Bristol's slavery history through the eyes of modern British people here.

If you find this topic particularly interesting, you might consider History of Slavery in the British Caribbean an online course run by the University of Glasgow and the University of the West Indies taught through historical slave accounts.