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

after World War I (WWI); the Australian Black Movement 1964-1975; and the 1988
Bicentennial 3 era.
Influenced by Apple’s (1993, 2000) concept of official knowledge, a selection of schoolbased
texts was analysed using primarily a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach.
School-based texts include the relevant syllabus, Education Department approved textbooks,
other approved school texts such as Queensland Readers, school textbooks published in
Queensland, textbooks used in schools, and school literary texts. From each era, a minimum
of ten (10) school texts, from primary and high school grades, were selected for data analysis.
This number of texts has enabled a representative sample of information to be gathered from
a variety of sources. In addition, where available, a resistant text published at the time has
also been examined in order to demonstrate against the grain texts published in the same era.
The narratives of such resistant examples provide opportunities for the illumination of the
ways in which the dominant discourse of an era effectively marginalise (and at times,
demonise) alternative readings of history or nationhood; even though such marginalised texts
might in later eras assume legitimate status. The selection of all texts used in this project is
guided by a set of criteria, explained in Chapter 3: Methodology, Research Design and
Conduct.
1.3 Motivation to Conduct the Research
The motivation to conduct this research came from being a History, SOSE and English
teacher 4 during the time that the Queensland SOSE debates were featuring in public
discourses, and the broader history/culture wars were featuring on national and international
levels. The impact these debates had on classroom teaching, in terms of students, parents and
other people I met on a social basis, questioning and criticizing the content taught, was quite
significant and at times confronting. Keeping informed of the debates surrounding this issue
then led to an interest in finding out which perspectives of Australian history had been
privileged in Queensland school curriculum of previous eras, what the unstated ideological
underpinnings of school syllabuses and textbooks were, and the connections to their own
historical contexts. In a way, there was a motivation to engage in research that would enable a
“…searching for new and interconnected ways of understanding power and oppression and
3 The year 1988 is an important one in Australia’s national history, being the 200 year anniversary of the arrival
of the First Fleet from England to Port Jackson, Sydney. Chapter 9: 1988 Bicentennial era details the
significance of Great Britain’s act of colonisation to Australian national history.
4 A thorough disclosure of researcher is included in Chapter 3: Methodology, Research Design and Conduct.
6