STGA Blue Badge Training Course

STGA Blue Badge Core Knowledge Course Information

Rationale

This is one of the four Scottish Tourist Guide Association Core Knowledge courses that equip students with a broad understanding of the physical, cultural, archaeological and historical character of Scotland.  These courses cover a broad and diverse range of subject areas and knowledge necessary for effective tourist guiding. This course will give you a basic grounding in the pre-historic period and significant events in Scottish history to the present day. Core Knowledge Courses are taught via face to face lectures at the University of Edinburgh, with each lecture supported by notes and information online, and field visits.

Aims and Objectives

• To provide a framework of current interpretations of the period 8000BC - AD 1100, and from early medieval to modern periods
• To provide an understanding of the limitations and potential for archaeological data.
• To provide students with an understanding of the main political events in Scottish History: from the unification of the kingdom to the Enlightenment and the Highland clearances.
• To encourage reflection on a number of broad themes which underpin the course: the making of the kingdom, national identity and the role of monarchy, relations between Scotland and England, the role of religion in Scottish politics and society and changing social patterns. 
• To introduce  the surviving evidence, whether documentary or drawn from the physical environment, and encouraged to evaluate it for themselves, particularly as regards points of historical controversy.

Transferable skills

In addition to the critical thinking and writing skills, this course will give you an opportunity to practice   analytical  and synthesising  skills that could be profitably deployed in the study of humanities and social science subjects as  well as in professional guiding.  You will need to evaluate various  approaches to, and explanations of, different types of evidence, and make critical choices between them, and you will also get some experience in collecting and synthesising evidence from primary and secondary sources.

Assessment for this course  (please see Assessment information about weightings and policies)

2 x In-class assessments

Archaeology - Slide Quiz
History - Short Essay
AND
1 x  2000 word essay in EITHER History OR Archaeology

Archaeology - Course Content

1. The nature of archaeological evidence and the limitations that this imposes
2. Hunter-gatherers and the first farmers: Scotland 8000 BC - 2500 BC
3. The arrival of metal - the early and middle bronze age: Scotland 2500 BC - 1000 BC
4. Archaeology Field Trip to Royal and National Museums
5. The later bronze age, the arrival of iron and the world beyond the Roman frontier : Scotland 1200 BC - AD 500
6. The Romans in Scotland : Scotland AD 80 - AD 210
7. Early history and the coming of the Vikings : Scotland AD 500 - AD 1100
8. In-class Assessment and Essay Consultation

Archaeology - Bibliography

Alcock, Leslie ( 1989) Arthur's Britain: History and Archaeology AD 367-634, Penguin

Alcock, Leslie (2003) Kings & warriors, craftsmen & priests in northern Britain AD 550-850 Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Monograph Series

Breeze, David J (1996) Roman Scotland ,B T Batsford & Historic Scotland

Edwards, K J and I Ralston, I (eds) (1997) Scotland: Environment and Archaeology, 8000 BC-AD 1000, 1997, John Wiley

Graham-Campbell, J and C E Batey, (1998) Vikings in Scotland Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh

Hunter, J and Ian Ralston, I (eds) (1999), The Archaeology of Britain: an introduction from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Industrial Revolution, Routledge

Ritchie, J N G and Ritchie, A   (1991) Scotland: Archaeology and Early History, 2nd edition Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh

An extensive series published jointly by Batsford and Historic Scotland covers both specific periods and sites. Students should note that some of these include, without qualification, interpretations that have not been previously argued in academic journals and are often highly contentious.

History - Course Content

1. The making of the kingdom
2. Scotland before the 'Wars of Independence'
3. History Field Visit to Edinburgh Castle
4. The 'Wars of Independence'
5. The Stewart dynasty in  Scotland and England
6. Scotland from 1603-1707
7. Jacobitism and  The Highland Clearances
8. History In-class Assessment and Essay Consultation

History  - Bibliography

Core Texts

Lynch  M. (1992.) Scotland: a New History, London, Pimlico

Houston R.A & Knox W.W.J. (eds) (2001). The New Penguin History of Scotland, Allen Lane, London

Menzies G (ed) (2001). In Search of Scotland, Edinburgh, Polygon

Mitchison R 1997, A History of Scotland, Routledge, London

Pittock, M.  2003, A New History of Scotland, Sutton Publishing, London

Background Reading

W. Ferguson (1994). Scotland’s relations with England: a survey to 1707, Edinburgh, Saltire Society

P.G.B, McNeill & H.L. MacQueen (eds.), 1996, Atlas of Scottish History to 1707, Edinburgh

R. Mitchison (ed) (1991). Why Scottish History Matters, Edinburgh, Saltire Society