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This project analyses dominant socio-political discourses present in specific historical eras,
reproduced within official school knowledge. What these dominant discourses are and their
changing nature over time are explored throughout the data analysis stages. These discourses,
made evident through language selection communicate “…particular social and cultural
contexts, contexts in which ideological forms and social inequalities abound” (Pennycook,
1994, p. 123). Furthermore, as Woods states, in support of history studies that incorporate the
use of discourse, “…discourse is not merely a lapse into a textual generality, a world of text
and nothing but text, but an assertion of the particular and specific” (2004, p. 164), and
Roberts’ statement that deconstructing texts is “…the critical procedure evolved by
poststructuralists to unpick the illusory unity of a text to reveal what its composition
suppressed or displaced” (2004, p. 228).
The research findings of this project demonstrate that the content of Australian history in
school curriculum shifts over time, due to changes in what is considered acceptable and
‘true’. Gramsci’s and Althusser’s understandings of hegemony and maintaining the status quo
are useful in examining and providing a grounding of how dominant sociopolitical discourses
are maintained. The findings also show how school curriculum is directly influenced by
government policies and attitudes towards specific issues, especially those that are taught in
schools. For example, it is asserted that attitudes, government policies towards and events
related to immigration are represented in certain ways, depending on the era of Australia’s
history, and as a reflection of textbook content, which is brought about as a result of the
relevant syllabus. This assertion is aligned with researchers who apply CDA, such as Price,
who in describing discourse acquisition, draws on the understanding that in any given text,
attention is given to an “…engagement in the processes that sustain and transform
discourses…transitory stability of any discourse is a function of the privileging and
marginalising of different heterogeneous elements that contribute to that discourse at any
given moment” (1999, p. 582). This relates to Kincehloe’s understanding of power and
discourse which works “…through a shared culture and language…as those with the most
power to shape our consciousnesses…it works best when everything seems normal and
comfortable” (2004, p. 7). Luke too discusses the concept of ‘truth’ in his own work framed
within CDA research, linking education with broader society and describes this as being
“…the construction of ‘truths’ about the social and natural world, truths that become the
taken-for-granted definitions and categories by which governments rule and monitor their
populations and by which members of communities define themselves and others” (1995-
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