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celebration of National Aborigines’ Week (Department of Education, 1987a). Yet, on the
other hand there are some very outmoded, and otherwise obsolete, expressions used. For
example referring to Indigenous Australians: as “natives...a constant problem, stealing tools
and animals and menacing the convicts” (Department of Education, 1988a, p. 31); and
“...Dampier described the Aborigines as ‘the miserablest (sic) people in the world” (Power et
al., 1985). Combined with representations of Indigenous Australians as being passive
participants in their own history, finding a coherent representation of Indigenous Australians
is difficult (as seen for example in the Primary Social Studies sourcebook year 5,
Department of Education, 1988a introductory unit on the migration of Aboriginals and Torres
Strait Islanders to Australia, described solely from a scientific perspective). This perhaps
points to the impact and continued rise in profile of Indigenous Australians in mainstream
public discourses, with the school curriculum having a difficult time reconciling this by
altering the types of discourses that had dominated the curriculum for so long. This is the
case especially in relation to the periods of early colonisation, Dutch contact with Indigenous
Australians on the Western coast of Australia, and Indigenous histories pre-1600s.
If within the same unit or topic or chapter different perspectives were presented in a way that
enabled students to carefully weigh up the pros and cons of historical topics in order that they
arrive at their own informed conclusions, the unpredictability of the curriculum could be
understood. However, this is not the case. Instead between different curriculum materials, or
within different sections of the same curriculum materials, perspectives and underlying
ideologies are presented to students in such a way that promotes confusion through binary
perspectives that are not mediated or explained.
7.23.2 Curriculum as a learning opportunity for teachers.
Unlike other eras, where school curriculum is written in a way that considers teacher
knowledge already exists or assumes that knowledge outside of the written text is not
required, this is not always the case in textbooks for this era. For example, the Social studies
for year 5 sourcebook (Department of Education, 1988a) does not presume that teachers hold
the required background knowledge to effectively teach their students. Instead, several parts
of the sourcebook are addressed directly and solely to the teacher—not as a way to direct,
inform or suggest pedagogical approaches—but rather in a way that provides learning
opportunities for teachers in key content areas. Examples of content include pre-1788 contact
between Indigenous Australians and overseas traders. Two extracts from the sourcebook that
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