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(and at times former dominant discourses) serves to reinforce or create prejudices, continues
the silencing of marginalised groups and tells only part of the story of the nation. In having a
curriculum that presents knowledge as unproblematic, a view of the world as homogenous is
presented to school students. The impact of this is that in a sense an ‘Other-ing’ occurs for
those who do not fit within this created homogenous view of the world, regardless of the
ideology underpinning the construction of the curriculum. The far reaching consequences of
this are that students then bring those static views of the world with them into adulthood.
Therefore, it seems that a sense of pedagogical balance needs to be struck that enables
students to view the world through a variety of lenses, in the safe learning environment of a
classroom.
8.3.1 Before and immediately after WWI.
The curriculum approach during this era is overwhelmingly clearly a traditional approach,
with the emphasis on grand narratives, the ‘truth’ and a Whig version of progression traced
through history. This is epitomised through the following examples, categorised within a
discourse of progress. The children's book of moral lessons: Third series, in a section titled
Lesson XXIII Looking Backwards under the subsection, Bad deeds of the past, reads:
Of course, many of the ideas and customs of the Past were bad, and it is good that we
should drop them. The old English took great pleasure in robbery; they sailed the sea
in their wooden ships, and landed on coasts where they thought they could obtain
booty in gold, corn, prisoners, etc. After Oliver Cromwell’s death, his body was not
allowed to rest in peace; his enemies dug it up, and suspended it by chains to a gibbet
such as criminals were hanged on; but no one would wish to do such a coarse deed
to-day. An Englishman, Sir John Hawkins, was the first to engage in the negro slave
trade, and his coat-of-arms bore the picture of a black man tied with a cord; but you
may be sure no man to-day would care to have such a coat-of-arms painted over his
doorway or on his window. Such thoughts and habits as these we are glad to cast
aside. (F.J. Gould, 1909, p. 115)
Furthermore, an example of the curriculum approach being traditional can be read from the
syllabus itself (see Source 8.1).
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