Mapping LGBT+ Bristol Schools Resource Pack (KS4)

This resource pack was developed as part of Mapping LGBT+ Bristol - a collaboration between University Bristol, Bristol City Council, local LGBT+ history group OutStories Bristol and the LGBTQ youth group Freedom Youth. Mapping LGBT+ Bristol involved local volunteers in the researching, recording of Bristol’s LGBT+ history and the creation of a digital map and mobile app to display and elicit further contributions to the material collected.

The lesson plans here draw on the material collected through the course of Mapping LGBT+ Bristol and make use of the map and mobile app as an innovative and exciting method of engaging KS4 students in local LGBT+ history and its geographies. Through engagement with this rich and locally relevant source material, the resources aim to cultivate in students, a connection to place and elicit profound reflection on social and philosophical questions around gender, sexuality, social norms, freedom, crime and punishment. The resources also raise methodological questions around what it is that different kinds of source material – like historic newspaper articles or oral history recordings - can tell us about the past as well as the difficulties one enters when trying to understand historic practices using contemporary concepts.