This year marked the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the History Teachers’ Association (HTA). Set up in 1995, the association aims to disseminate the teaching of history and encourage activities and publications regarding history scholarship.

The HTA held various activities to mark the anniversary throughout the year. Its latest book History Teaching in Malta on the Threshold of the 21st century, highlighted local developments concerning various areas of history education. It was presented by the HTA committee to former education minister Owen Bonnici and  permanent secretary Frank Fabri during a meeting in July.

The meeting was also an opportunity to discuss the importance of history teaching at different levels of schooling, the place of the subject in the curriculum and the challenges history teachers presently face when promoting history as an option subject with Year 8 students. These points were discussed in the light of a memorandum of understanding signed between the ministry and the HTA in 2019, which underscored the commitment to enrich history as a core subject in state schools, promote history as an option subject, andincrease historical awareness in primary schools.

The committee subsequently held a meeting with President George Vella at San Anton Palace.

This year the HTA also launched the ‘Best History Teacher Award’, with the first winner being Roberta Xuereb, a history teacher at De La Salle College, with Paul Portelli, from St Martin’s College, placing second.

Ninvestigaw l-Istorja ta’ Malta, a set of two HTA textbooks for use by Year 7 and Year 8 students, was introduced in schools, replacing the Ġrajjet Malta series. With a rich array of full-colour primary and secondary sources, timelines and illustrations, these textbooks’ pedagogy stresses the analysis of sources to learn key historical concepts – such as evidence, cause and effect, and change and continuity. The English version of these textbooks comes in e-book format, making it the first of its kind in Malta.

Teachers also received training on how these textbooks are best used in history lessons during a yearly continuing professional development session.

This year’s 19th Michael A. Sant Memorial Lecture was held online due to the pandemic. The guest speaker was Helen Snelson from the University of York, who spoke about ‘The personal and the particular: Stories to add intrigue, interruption and intensity to the History that students learn’.

Alexander Cutajar is PRO, History Teachers’ Association (Malta)