European Association of History Educators

The Past in the Present; Identity, Diversity, and Values in History Teaching

The 15th Annual EUROCLIO Professional Development Conference took place in Bristol, England, from March 31st-April 5th 2008 at the University of the West of England and was hosted by Dr. Dean Smart and the History Teacher Education Network (HTEN) on the theme of ‘The Past in the Present; Identity, Diversity, and Values in History Teaching.’ In total, 104 participants from 37 countries travelled to the UK to participate in the conference and they were joined by more than fifty teacher educators, teachers and trainee teachers from the UK for six days of educational events, with working sessions running from 9 am-7.30 pm or later- including a half day of visits generously hosted by five impressive local schools.
There were twelve hours of keynote speeches; sixty-seven hours of workshops presented by thirty-six different workshop leaders. There was also an extensive shadow programme of planning and project meetings, committee meetings for HTEN and Board and Secretariat meetings for EUROCLIO- as well as an Edwardian (1908) style meal, a chance to explore the city of Bristol and or the City of Bath and a full range of British weather from bright sunshine when it was too hot to wear a jumper through to a flurry of snow as people departed! The local organizers, EUROCLIO and the participants are very pleased with the result of the Conference.