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asis for critical (and often derisory) public commentary (see, for example, Kelly, 2006;
Donnelly, 2005; Bolt, 2000). Second, the rationalising of social sciences, especially the
separate disciplines of history and geography, has drawn much criticism from education
sources, such as those involved in school curriculum development and the delivery of tertiary
courses in these areas. Although connections have been anecdotally made (Millar & Peel,
2004) attributing declining numbers of students studying history and geography in senior
school to the impact of SOSE, taught in each school stage to year 10 in an integrated fashion
where the boundaries between previously discrete disciplines are dissolved to a large degree
there is no evidence of this in Queensland schools at this point in time for Modern History.
The numbers of students studying this subject as a percentage of total senior school students
has remained at a steady average of 12.42% (SD=1.025) between the years 1997-2005. This
time period covers sufficient years to track the number of students studying Modern History
prior to and during implementation of the SOSE syllabus, and to take into consideration
yearly fluctuations. However, this information does not take into consideration the decline of
students taking History over the past thirty plus years. For a more detailed analysis of this,
see Teese and Polesel (2003) who claim that the decline in students taking History can be
attributed to, amongst other factors, students “...transferring their efforts from history to other
fields. Their allegiances switched to subjects of greater vocational or strategic value” (2003,
p. 83). Teese and Polesel (2003) further attribute the decline in student numbers to the
broadening of subjects available for student selection under the umbrella of Humanities.
The National Inquiry into School History headed by Tony Taylor identified the following
possible reasons for the (purported) decline in students studying history. Published in 2000,
the issue of the Queensland SOSE syllabus data mentioned above is not relevant and Taylor’s
statement considers the issue Australia-wide.
Notwithstanding the patchy nature of SOSE provision in Australia, one of the major
Australian curriculum controversies of the past five years has been an apparent
decline in numbers of students studying history at the senior school level...This
seeming decline in school history has also received the attention of other
commentators and is sometimes laid at the feet of uncaring educators (The Sunday
Age, 5 July 1998), sometimes at hands of rival disciplines (The Australian Review of
Books, 20 December 1997) but more frequently at the door of SOSE (for example
Price, 1999; Wagg, 1999). If we eschew such a non-historical, single-cause
explanation (blaming SOSE for a decline in history teaching), we may find that the
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