PDF (Whole Thesis) - USQ ePrints - University of Southern ...

Furthermore, the use of primary source documents in the textbooks is significantly flawed.
Their inclusion is limited, and when included as part of the narrative, they are included in a
way that is antithesis to the history discipline. They are rarely sourced and generally no
mediation for the student is provided in order for them to locate the recounts themselves. Nor
is there an attempt to provide alternative views through primary source documents, than what
is being expressed in the narrative written by the textbook authors. This emphasizes the need
to ensure that a school History curriculum is directly connected with the discipline of history,
and not a course of the appreciation of literature or culture. It is apparent that students need to
be provided with scaffolding in order to develop the skills of an historian, at an age
appropriate level. Finally, except for minor diversions, the history content presented during
this era was generally celebratory. This is arguably within an overall discourse of progression
operating, with inefficiencies brought up in the narrative countered by an overarching
understanding of celebration and progression.
5.10.3 Curriculum as gatekeeper of conservative content and values or agent for
change.
The hidden ideological constructions of the curriculum are distinctly conservative and
encompassing of one perspective. An example of the conservatism of the curriculum reads:
It has at times been suggested that Parkes had such radical views that he would have
liked New South Wales to sever her connection with England and set up as an
independent country. This is not true, for he always believed in the maintenance of
the British Empire. But he did hope that the day would dawn when Australia would
speak with equal voice with England and other British States in a Commonwealth of
British Nations. He once said, “I believe the time is fast approaching when we shall
cease to speak of England and her colonies. The time is fast coming when these giant
children of the mother of nations will assert power and importance for themselves:
but as they grow in strength.......they will grow in reverential love for the Sovereign
and for England. We shall have to throw into disuse the word ‘colonies,’ for a grand
world-encircling British Empire will arise resting upon a hundred isles......And this
new Empire, embracing the outlying countries and the Old Land must be united on
terms of a just and an enlightened equality.” Scarcely had the hoary and revered
political warrior passed away when the Empire began to take shape in the form
which he had predicted. (Cramp, 1927, p. 237-238)
184