Daniel Nuttall
Profile
Biography
In August 2025, it was with excitement and pride that I took up the position as the Curriculum Area Lead for the History PGCE Programme at the University of York. In this role I develop and support beginner history teachers as they progress through their Initial Teacher Training programme. I have been involved in history education throughout my career and am extremely passionate about the role that history education can play in transforming young people’s understanding and perspectives, not only of the past but also of the present.
I completed my BA (Hons) in History at the University of Leeds in 2003, followed by my PGCE in 2005. In 2023, I completed my Masters in Education (History) with the IOE Faculty of Education and Society, UCL, achieving a Distinction.
For the last twenty years, I have taught history in various education settings, mostly in 11-18 comprehensive schools in the north of England, but also at an international school (IB) in Austria and at a Catholic Sixth Form College (where I continue to teach part-time). This has included departmental leadership. Throughout this time, I have engaged with beginner teacher education: as a Subject Mentor and as Professional/Lead Mentor. I have also had cross-college responsibilities for professional development support and leadership. In addition, I have co-authored textbooks and teachers’ resources for Pearson Education for Key Stages 3, 4 and 5.
Research
Overview
Between 2008 and 2017, much of my classroom-based research and experimentation focused on scale-switching, particularly the use of synoptic frameworks, in attempting to challenge the fragmentation of students’ historical knowledge and to develop their historical consciousness. This included the development of experimental units of work that taught Big History, that is teaching history at a macro-scale level (temporally and geographically).
My more recent research publications reflect my specialist interest and knowledge of Holocaust education, in additional to my academic interest in the development of students’ historical consciousness. Historical consciousness focuses less on an individual's acquisition of factual historical knowledge, and more on their tacit epistemology; how they think with history, rather than singularly what they think about history.
Recent publications:
Nuttall, D. (2024). What lessons, if any, do students infer from their studies of the Holocaust? The Curriculum Journal, 00, 1–18. BERA. https://doi.org/10.1002/curj.312
Nuttall, D. (2021) ‘What is the purpose of studying history? Developing students’ perspectives on the purposes and value of history education’. History Education Research Journal, 18 (1), 89–108. UCL Press. https://doi.org/10.14324/HERJ.18.1.06
External activities
Memberships
Member of the Historical Association (HA)
Member of the History Teacher Educators Network (HTEN)
Invited talks and conferences
- Historical Association Yorkshire History Forum: ‘Something to stick to…: scale-switching in history education.’ (2018)
- Schools History Project (SHP) Conference:
- 'My mum's got photographs of Tudor planes: using big history to provide students with a framework of the past.' (2015)
- ‘A big history of slavery: scale-switching to avoid a black-and-white view of a complex issue.' (2014)
- 'Using e-learning in the history classroom' (2011)
- Historical Association (HA) Northern History Forum workshop leader: 'Using frameworks of knowledge to help students make sense of the 20th century.' (2014)
