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However, due to the wide distribution and recorded use of the government authorised,
published and printed textbooks (through school cataloguing and through informal
discussions with people who were school students and teachers during the 1960s and early
1970s), that matched exactly the curriculum content for each school year level, it is accurate
to use these texts as the key source for textbook-based study content. In fact, the
‘Recommended centres of interest and division of work’ (Department of Education, 1964, p.
9) from the Syllabus acts as the outline to the content in the government published Social
Studies for Queensland schools textbook series.
Compared with the analysis of the WWI era, the Queensland School Readers play only a
minor role in this era, due to two main reasons. First, and most importantly, the majority of
the Readers’ content did not contain any Indigenous Representations. Second, the quantity of
textbooks available far exceeds those available for the WWI era, thus there is not the need to
supplement school textbook analysis with Readers, as there was in the earlier twentieth
century period.
Key to the selection of textbooks for this era is the government published and supplied Social
Studies for Queensland schools series covering grades 4 to 8. Constructed to reflect the 1952
syllabus, they were then used throughout the period the 1964 syllabus was in place, with no
adjustments to content made. For approximately 25 years, the same textbooks were used by
primary-age school students in Queensland, demonstrating both continuity and a static
curriculum. Regarding the initial rollout of these textbooks, and demonstrating their
widespread use, the 1954 Annual Report reads:
Since the adoption of the policy of producing text books for free issue to schools, a
panel of experienced teachers has been engaged in the preparation of the material
necessary in the compilation of these books. The books are well illustrated, the
subject-matter attractively arranged, and very favourable comment has been received
from teachers on the success of the undertaking. The Government Printing Office has
played no small part in presenting this series of attractive books and in producing the
quantities necessary to meet the requirements of the schools. Some idea of the
magnitude of the task may be gauged from the fact that over 232,000 books in
English, Social Studies and Mathematics have been issued to schools. In no other
State has the issue of free text books been made on a scale comparable with the issue
in this State. (Department of Public Instruction, 1954, p. 25)
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