9: The 1958 Riots in Malta: Teaching Silenced History in Maltese School Classrooms

This article tackles a particular history pedagogical challenge, that is, how best to teach a controversial topic, which has been avoided in the classroom. There is an explanation of a teaching method created by the author and tried out in a history classroom (year 11, 15-year-olds). The context of the historical topic, the 1958 Riots in Malta, is explained and reasons are given as to why it is ‘hidden’ from history Maltese classrooms. The topic is from Maltese history and the activities were created by the writer, a history pedagogist living in Malta and carried out in a Maltese school but the pedagogy and discussion is applicable to any contested history topic in any community. A model lesson plan based on a 90-minute lesson with 15-year olds is given. This lesson plan used Robert Stradling’s work on multiperspectivity (Stradling, 2003) as a framework. The activities created were tried in a real classroom and pupils’ work and responses are referred to.