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The incorporation of CDA within this project enables the language of the primary source
documents to be critically analysed, particularly locating the power and marginalization that
occurs in the representations of groups in History curriculum. The remark by Husbands
points to the need to be aware of the use of tired clichés, labels and generalizations and
explain their application if applied, and to be avoided wherever possible so that
unambiguous, clear language is used. Therefore, the application of a CDA approach with its
ability to enable hidden discourses of power within language selection to be ‘uncovered’ or
made explicit. As Curthoys and Docker, drawing on their understanding of Hayden White
write, “…literary qualities and literary forms and genres are not something decorative or
merely added to an account or analysis, but help explain what the historian in the present
takes to be the meaning of past events and occurrences” (2006, p. 11).
To conclude this historical methodology section, a statement that resonates with the type of
research conducted for this project—within the dimly lit library as well as in other places and
spaces for field work, all greatly enjoyed at the various stages of this project—of history as
an active approach to research, reads:
History is a very active study, hobby or, in some cases, obsession. The historian does
not merely sit in some dimly lit library poring over manuscripts and taking notes.
This is only a small part of the research process. There are other exciting sources of
evidence that need to be explored outside the library, in the community—at the
newspaper office, historical society, in cemeteries, on farms, at museums, in shops,
besides roadways, at football grounds, on the sites of ghost towns, in art, tapestries,
people and landscapes. The work of the historian is endless and the joys of discovery
numerous.
…
And history is a community subject—it provides us with our origins, our
understandings of the present and with some of the skills and insights necessary to
enable us to lead active lives in society. (Gurry, 1987, n.p.)
3.7 Disclosure of Researcher
There are a variety of terms used by researchers to express the subjectivities that are brought
forth when conducting research, each with their own particular ideological stance and reason
for inclusion; including the levels to which disclosure occurs. The term ‘disclosure of
researcher’ has been selected to describe, analyse, and conceptualize subjectivities brought to
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