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Primarily, the textbooks selected for analysis during this era fall within the compulsory school
age range (5-14 years). However, with the dramatic increase of students continuing past the
compulsory age of schooling, two senior high school textbooks have also been included.
These books are: Challenge and response: A history of the modern world volume 1 (Allsopp
& Cowie, 1969) and Challenge and response: A history of the modern world volume 2
(Allsopp & Cowie, 1976).
6.2.2 Key syllabus documents.
For this era, History as a distinct curriculum area did not exist for primary school students.
Instead History was placed within a broad integrated subject called Social Studies, with the
distinct subjects of History, Geography and other Social Sciences like Citizenship not
explicitly delineated. Therefore, for analysis, content from textbooks has been selected that
encompass History-type topics and approaches, rather than Geography-style content. The
change from individual subjects to an integrated Social Studies occurred with the
implementation of the 1952 Syllabus, as stated in the Education Office Gazette of November
1951, “…the replacement of Geography and History by a course in Social Studies”
(Department of Public Instruction, 1951, p. 5).
During this era, two Social Studies syllabuses were in place in Queensland schools. The first
implemented in 1952, The Syllabus or Course of Instruction in Primary and Intermediate
Schools and the second implemented in 1964, The Syllabus or Course of Instruction for
Primary Schools Social Studies. The 1952 syllabus is used in order to contextualise the era
under investigation, for although the 1964 syllabus covers the entire time period under
investigation, in order to track the changes in curriculum that occurred comparison is made
with textbooks from the earlier era of 1952 to 1963. In 1965, The Syllabus or Course of
Instruction for Primary Schools Social Studies (Department of Education, 1964) was in its
first year of use in State (public) schools. This syllabus was used until 1978 when the new
Social Studies Syllabus was introduced. For the time period covered in this chapter, the 1964
syllabus remained the guiding document for the determination of curriculum content. This
syllabus, although comprising the focus for this chapter, really has only negligible differences
to the 1952 syllabus. This is also evident by the same textbooks Social Studies for
Queensland schools series being used from the early 1950s to the mid 1970s without any
changes being made to them, despite a number of reprints being published.
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