The study aims at exploring the mismatches between the Queensland primary social studies syllabus and sourcebook documents. It explores the history of curriculum development in general before covering the development of the social studies curriculum. The approaches of citizenship transmission and reflective inquiry are discussed and are cited as being responsible for the philosophical mismatches that exist between the syllabus and sourcebook documents. To illustrate this mismatch, the controversies concerning the Year 5 sourcebook are explored more closely.