A History of the Development of English Syllabuses in N.S.W. Secondary Education, 1953-1976: A "Continuum" or a "Series of New Beginnings"?

This research project was designed in response to a recommendation by Bernstein that if educational theorists are to take "shifts in the content of education seriously", then it is essential for specific research studies to be undertaken, which would explore the history of particular "contents" within the educational curriculum, as well as the relationship of such "content" to the forces responsible for their formulation. The following study focuses specifically, for its "content", upon one fundamental component within the broad area encompassed by the term "English curriculum". This "content" is the development of English syllabuses in N.S.W. secondary education from 1953 to 1976. By means of a thorough comparative analysis of the texts of the five syllabuses of 1953, 1961/2, 1965, 1971 and 1974/6, the "shifts in content" of these syllabuses are identified. Through an examination of primary source documents, the interviewing of all the surviving principal figures involved in the process of syllabus formulation during that period, and reference to other relevant research, a history is constructed which accounts for the changes located through the process of comparative textual analysis