Teaching Slavery in Scottish Schools (TSS) was set up in 2021 as an informal network of teachers and academics to develop and share resources and research about the trade in enslaved African people. Since then, the project has received support and funding from the ESRC, the Scottish Government, the Wolfson Foundation and British Academy, and the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stirling.
The programme was recognised in the 2024 the Scottish Association of Minority Ethnic Educators (SAMEE) Awards.
Our primary aim is to connect educators in Scotland who are teaching and researching the history of slavery. Teachers have long recognised the significance of this topic: to discussions about contemporary racism, global inequalities, and social and cultural change.
Through working together, we have developed a core set of principles to guide teaching, a suite of lesson plans and associated resources, a broad compilation of primary sources for use in the classroom, and a video series tackling key historical questions and introducing new materials.