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Although Issitt (2004) contends that textbooks are an avenue to promote certain viewpoints
and dominant discourses, and that this may be a conscious act, he writes in the case of nondominant
content and views that are included, that this is an inadvertent inclusion. Other
researchers, such as Apple (1993, 2000, 2004) and Whitty (1985) see the inclusion and
exclusion of content as a conscious act to determine the official knowledge present in school
curriculum through textbooks, with Whitty stating, “the texts, then, serve to emphasize and
legitimate the existence and activities of some groups at the expense of others” (1985, p. 41).
Issitt surmises this part of the argument with the following statement “in its role as an
essential site of learning, the textbook is a key mechanism for the production and
reproduction of ideas” (2004, p. 688). Both Apple (1993, 2000, 2004) and Issitt (2004) agree
that textbooks are not politically neutral, although they may appear to be, and are usually
promoted as natural publications, with Issitt writing “…their status as ideologically neutral is
rarely sustainable and their apolitical veneer easily stripped off” (2004, p. 688).
Within attempts to maintain specific ideological views through textbook content, the subject
of national identity formation through national history is important to critique and understand
for the ways it is covered through school texts. For example, Patrick Brindle comments that
of textbooks published in the UK during the inter-war period, they were
“particularly…concerned with strong narrative and their…affinity towards a mainstream,
national heritage based upon a canon of recurring stories about figures and events from the
past…” (1997, p. 1). The same can be applied in the Queensland context, in the period of the
early to mid 20 th century, whereby nationalist discourses were starting to emerge and a canon
of stories linked to Australia’s emerging nationhood began to be sustained (see, for example,
Dunlop & Palfrey, 1932a analysed in Chapter 5: Before and Immediately After WWI).
Through these examples, the notion of creating a hegemonic sense of national identity is
apparent. It is also evident that one purpose textbooks aim to serve is the promotion of
national pride through select events and people deemed important in the nation’s
development and history (a topic discussed in greater depth in Constructions of national
identity through school curriculum section of this chapter).
2.3.3 Hidden curriculum within textbooks.
The focus of Jackson’s (1968) initial conceptualisation of the hidden curriculum is towards
pedagogical and behavioural practices, for example as seen through the following statement
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