1st December 2005, 08:30 PM
Ok I am going to play devils advocate here- these are thoughts rather than set views of opinion- and I apologise for the length of the post [:I].
I grew up in an ethnically diverse part of the UK. Classes had a mix of kids whose parents came over in the 50s/60s. When it came to options for GCSE all but two opted out of history as they said it was not relevant to them as it was not covering their area of interest- ie where they came from. The two that kept up history to A-Level only wanted to do it as it was required for degree entry I think for law. How can we make people more interested in history they see as not relevant to them?
Archaeolgy having no formal entry qualification level is one of the issues that was recently raised in a debate I attended. This was felt to be making it difficult for archaeology to be taken seriously as a profession rather than a bunch of educated/interested amateurs. There is still to much of the 'oh you do this for a living' in archaeology as peolple do not percieve it as a career.
I would be intrigued to know what kind of jobs we could advertise in the job centre. I will suggest one argument- digging jobs- well doesn't this undermine the whole idea of a profession and make for the case that any one can dig a hole? As someone running commercial sites the pressure for getting the job done ASAP often does not allow the time for intensive training. It is already becoming a problem with graduates in archaeology as many have now come through a degree without going on a training dig as the uni's rarely run them these days.
I am not adverse to any one working in archaeology but my experiance sugests that there is a genuine lack of interest amongst immigrant/ethnic people in the history/archaeology of the UK. If archaeology is aiming to move forward and compete in the commercial world we need to lose the 'amateur' image and be taken seriously. If we are to get more of a diverse base in to archaeology I think we have to stimulate interest at an early age- in school. The issue of people clinging to their ethnic identity is one of the reasons surely that the immigration laws have now added a course in histoy and english as compulsory? Many kids I went to school with parents did not speak or spoke little English. This is perhaps the area to address?
PS No I am not dissing amateurs- I am all for the amateur circuit and help out as regularly as I can and even run training sessions.
Here there and everywhere, but still no trowel
I grew up in an ethnically diverse part of the UK. Classes had a mix of kids whose parents came over in the 50s/60s. When it came to options for GCSE all but two opted out of history as they said it was not relevant to them as it was not covering their area of interest- ie where they came from. The two that kept up history to A-Level only wanted to do it as it was required for degree entry I think for law. How can we make people more interested in history they see as not relevant to them?
Archaeolgy having no formal entry qualification level is one of the issues that was recently raised in a debate I attended. This was felt to be making it difficult for archaeology to be taken seriously as a profession rather than a bunch of educated/interested amateurs. There is still to much of the 'oh you do this for a living' in archaeology as peolple do not percieve it as a career.
I would be intrigued to know what kind of jobs we could advertise in the job centre. I will suggest one argument- digging jobs- well doesn't this undermine the whole idea of a profession and make for the case that any one can dig a hole? As someone running commercial sites the pressure for getting the job done ASAP often does not allow the time for intensive training. It is already becoming a problem with graduates in archaeology as many have now come through a degree without going on a training dig as the uni's rarely run them these days.
I am not adverse to any one working in archaeology but my experiance sugests that there is a genuine lack of interest amongst immigrant/ethnic people in the history/archaeology of the UK. If archaeology is aiming to move forward and compete in the commercial world we need to lose the 'amateur' image and be taken seriously. If we are to get more of a diverse base in to archaeology I think we have to stimulate interest at an early age- in school. The issue of people clinging to their ethnic identity is one of the reasons surely that the immigration laws have now added a course in histoy and english as compulsory? Many kids I went to school with parents did not speak or spoke little English. This is perhaps the area to address?
PS No I am not dissing amateurs- I am all for the amateur circuit and help out as regularly as I can and even run training sessions.
Here there and everywhere, but still no trowel