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5.2.1 Compulsory age of schooling.
The compulsory age of schooling during this era, as stated in the 1928 State
Education in Queensland report reads:
Primary education, which is free, secular, and compulsory to the age of 14 years (or
until the pupil has completed Class V requirements).
Isolated families are visited by itinerant teachers, or receive tuition by
correspondence. (Department of Public Instruction, 1928, p. 8)
This era will primarily cover the school curriculum up to and including this age. The
exceptions are New syllabus history for seventh grade (Dunlop & Palfrey, 1932b) and New
syllabus history for sixth grade (Dunlop & Palfrey, 1932a), as both these textbooks contain
important information regarding the exemplar topics, so they are included for analysis.
Furthermore, it is likely that many school students, particularly in urban environments
continued their schooling beyond grade five, so it is relevant to include textbooks from sixth
and seventh grade, for analysis. With the exception of the Readers, analysis of textbooks
published post 1930 will cover grade three onwards, as the syllabus states: “In Grade III., as
expressly stated in the Syllabus, pupils are introduced to the study of history...” (Dunlop &
Palfrey, 1934b, p. 3).
5.2.2 Key syllabus documents.
Locating a distinctly History curriculum presents some difficulty when researching this era,
as a stand-alone subject was only in place in the latter years. Instead, towards the beginning
of the era, history was placed within a larger subject area called History, Civics and Morals.
In addition, due to the lack of a dedicated history curriculum, the use of the Queensland
School Readers (and their predecessors) which fall outside of a syllabus and centre more on
appreciation of literature have had to be used. The existence of copies of Queensland School
Readers, despite being first published in 1913, can be attributed to the sheer number of books
published by the Department of Public Instruction, which as mandated for use by all
Queensland schools were printed in large quantities. Although now scarce, there is still at
least one copy from each series available (in public libraries and personal collections).
Despite the difficulty of not being able to locate the Syllabus for this era, the content and
ideological framework of these documents are able to be surmised from comprehensive
introductions and prefaces included in textbooks published during this era. For example, the
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