The Rise and Fall of History in the Victorian State Primary School: A Study of Response to Changing Social Purposes

Report of the Minister of Public Instruction for 1883–4. P.P. (Vic), IV, 1884, xiii.

An analysis of the historical material presented in the children's Royal Readers as prose and poetry for Reading and, after 1885, as the basis for lessons in History, indicates this role quite clearly. See Trethewey, A. R., The Teaching of History in State-supported Elementary Schools in Victoria, 1852–1954. Unpublished M.Ed. thesis, University of Melbourne, 1965, 35–42. Indeed, it was an increasing acceptance in the 1880's of the importance of such a role that contributed most significantly to the introduction of History as a school subject. See also, the Royal Commission on Education, 1881–1884. Index to and Analysis of the Evidence.

The Victorian Schoolmaster, 1, 4, October, 1879, 40. Also VI, 72, June, 1885, 184–5.

Fifth Report of the Board of Education. P.P. (Vic.), V, 1867, 66.

Third Report of the Board of Education. P.P. (Vic.), IV, 1864–5, 43.

The Royal Reader No. VI. Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1876, 15.

Royal Commission on Education (1881–84). Index to and analysis of the evidence, 1884—-Programme of Subjects, 230.

Report of the Minister of Public Instruction for 1886–7. P.P. (Vic.), III, 1887, 177.

Report of the Minister of Public Instruction for 1888–9. P.P. (Vic.), IV, 1889, 162.

The Australian Schoolmaster and Literary Review. XVIII, No. 215, May, 1897, 218–9.

The Australian Schoolmaster and Literary Review. Vol. XIX, No. 219, Sept., 1897, 45.

Fitchett W. H. Deeds that Won the Empire. London: George Newnes, Ltd., 1900, 4.

See Trethewey, op. cit., ch. 2.

The revised programme of instruction was issued in 1902 for a trial period before it was fixed by regulation. It became official in 1905 and was printed as a Supplement to the Education Gazette of 20th June, of that year.

Proceedings of the Annual Conference of Inspectors. April, 1901.

Apart from some re-arrangement of topics between grades, the only developments in the 1913 course were an increase in the time given to Australian History and Civics and a complete swing to the “great man” approach. For example, almost without exception, the various topics in Grades III to VI were centred on the deeds of a notable person. In the 1920 course, there was even less change—the time given to Civics was increased, and topics dealing with the Great War were included at all levels.

The Age, 3rd March, 1934, 21.

The Teachers' Journal, XXIII, 1, Jan., 1940, 8.

Informal experimental work leading to this step had been going on since 1934 as J. H. Barling and his staff developed the project method and pupil investigations beyond the usual subject barriers.

The Education Gazette and Teachers' Aid, XL, 12, Dec., 1940, 405.

Ibid.

The Education Gazette, May-September, 1941.

Pryor L. J. History as a Social Study. Unpublished M.Ed. Thesis, University of Melbourne, 1942, 908.

Pryor L. J. “History in the Elementary School”. The Education Gazette, XLIII, 8, 81.

Minutes of the Second Meeting of the Committee for the Revision of the Social Studies Curriculum in Primary Schools, 23rd November, 1950, 1.

Revised Syllabus for Social Studies, 15th March, 1951, 1.

Course of Study for Primary Schools. Social Studies 1954. Victoria: Education Department, 3.