Contribution short abstract:

An exploration of key developments in teaching primary and secondary age children, about society and how it works, from the 1960s onwards, with reference to the UK and the USA. Developments in recent decades will be explored.

Contribution long abstract:

The teaching of anthropology in schools, especially in the UK, has been an uphill struggle and has had far less success and impact than the other social sciences. When I set up the ATSS (The Association for the Teaching of the Social Sciences)

in the late 1960s with the late Professor Denis Lawton, we had no idea of the huge success that would occur for all the social sciences in entering the school curriculum, via GCSE and A Level courses and examinations. Every one of the social sciences, except anthropology, became widespread in the school curriculum from that decade, with sociology the most successful. I served on the executive committee of the ATSS and became a lifelong vice president and nearly all of the committee of the ATSS and all the new textbooks written by ATSS members were by sociologists. When I trained social science teachers at the University of Leicester from 1970 to the 1980s, every social science graduate was present - except anthropologists. Yet anthropology has a key role to play. I will explore successes and failures, along with my close colleagues from the RAI Education Committee. Many other developments in the school curriculum can contribute to school pupils' understanding of cultures.