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Chapter Four: Data Analysis Introduction
4.1 Introduction
The purpose of this chapter is to establish the historical context of schooling in Queensland
specifically related to History curriculum teaching, as relevant to this dissertation. This is
done so that a reading of the data analysis is able to be situated with established background
knowledge. A second purpose to explain the selection of curriculum documents, including
textbooks, syllabuses and Queensland School Readers, within their historical context is also
presented. The three chapters following this one present the analyses of the representations of
the two exemplar topics, British heritages and Indigenous Australians across the selected
eras. As the specific details of the historical and education contexts of each of the eras is
included at the introduction of the analysis chapters, this chapter acts only as a broad
introduction.
4.2 Queensland Schooling Context and Education History Overview
Mass, state funded education in Queensland was formally instituted with the passing and
enactment of the State Education Act of 1875 and regulations of the Department of Public
Instruction in Queensland (short title, State Education Act of 1875). The compulsory age of
schooling clause was then fully enacted in 1900 making school in Queensland free,
compulsory and secular. Initially, the compulsory age of schooling was for “...every child of
not less than six or more than twelve years of age...” (Part 3, ss. 28). Throughout the period of
time that this dissertation investigates, public education was (and remains) free and
compulsory. Various revisions occurred to the 1875 Act throughout the twentieth century,
with the compulsory age of schooling increasing, and are mentioned when relevant at the
beginning of each data analysis chapter. Changes too were made at various times to the
syllabuses and these changes form the focus of the Education context within each of the data
analysis chapters, which highlight the various incarnations History curriculum has had in
Queensland schools.
Primarily, available publications on Queensland education history topics have been written
from a celebratory perspective and authored by Department of Education officers, sometimes
anonymously. See, for example, an overview of the background, origin and features of Anzac
Day as published in Anzac Day in Queensland state schools (Department of Education,
Training and the Arts, 2007). Generally, these publications are structured in a way to present
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