The inaugural Honourary Life Members of SOSEAQ were honored at the launch of SOSEAQ in 2004. They are:

• Joy Schultz
• Brian Hoepper
• Rob Gilbert

Biography of Joy Schultz

Tenacious, ageless, tireless and innovative. It is difficult to encapsulate someone's professional persona in a few words but these are certainly ones that spring to mind when describing Joy's work in the SOSE area. And whilst the word tenacious often has negative connotations when it is used to describe inflexibility, in this case it aptly describes Joy's unfaltering commitment to the field of SOSE.

Ageless and tireless? Well, Joy will probably not thank us for pointing out just how longstanding her contributions have been and they are almost too numerous to mention. From a beginning secondary teacher of Ancient History, Study of Society, Geography, History, Citizenship Education in the 60s and 70s, through a long involvement in the development of the Board's Senior Study of Society syllabus in the 80s and 90s to a pivotal role as a curriculum developer of Social Education for Education Queensland and involvement in professional associations and networks throughout the 90s - Joy has been a staunch supporter of a rigorous and integrated approach to SOSE. Even now, during supposed retirement, Joy continues to work for the furtherment of SOSE curriculum and professional development through her educational consultancy work

Joy is the ultimate quiet achiever and is not one to blow her own trumpet so it falls to us to emphasise that it is not just for commitment and hard work that she has been nominated but also in recognition of her significant and innovative achievements. For example, Joy was instrumental in developing the Senior Study of Society syllabus and particularly the unique features of the culture model and concept maps. So too, Joy's work on developing the Social Investigation Strategy and its off shoot, TELSTAR has influenced teacher and student practice far and wide, even being adopted as a framework for social science teachers in Tuvalu! More recently she worked on developing the attributes of the lifelong learner as part of the Queensland Studies Authority's overarching document for the P-10 curriculum framework. This work became an integral and fundamental part of all the Key Learning Area syllabuses. Finally, of course becoming president of SEAA in 2003 and enabling the evolution of QSOSE from a consortium to a fully fledged new professional association means that she has been a driving force behind the development of SOSEAQ - this new association that we are here to launch. We therefore thank Joy and reward her for all of these contributions which will have long lasting benefits for the future of SOSE.

Biography of Brian Hoepper

Brian Hoepper (BA, DipED, BEd, MEdSt, PhD) taught for fifteen years in state secondary schools, eleven of them as a Head of Department (History/Social Science). He taught History, Citizenship Education, Geography, Study of Society and Integrated Studies. In 1975 he was part of a team that received the second-largest Schools Commission Innovations Grant in Queensland, to set up an 'open learning/integrated studies' centre for Year 8 students at Nashville SHS.

In 1984, Brian was appointed to the Faculty of Education at the Queensland University of Technology (then the Brisbane CAE). At QUT, Brian coordinated and taught History Curriculum, Social Science Curriculum and a Masters Program in Social and Environmental Education, as well as teaching in the professional doctorate program. His PhD, a study of the Educating Globally innovation, won the Grassie-Bassett Prize at the University of Queensland.  Brian took early retirement from QUT in 2002 to concentrate on writing and on consultancy work in professional development.

He was a long-serving member of the History Syllabus Subcommittee and Social Sciences Advisory Committee of the Queensland Studies Authority, responsible for statewide syllabus development.

Brian was a member of teams contracted by the Australian and state governments respectively to write the National Statement for Studies of Society and Environment and drafts of the Queensland SOSE Syllabus. He has written three research papers for QSA, on History, Peace Education and Globalisation respectively, and two SOSE curriculum modules distributed to Queensland schools.

Brian is the author or co-author of eight history textbooks for schools. He has contributed chapters to two tertiary textbooks, and to a UNESCO-funded resource on Teaching for Ecological Sustainability. Brian co-authored 'Beyond the Label', a professional development text on globalisation, fashion and young Australians. In 2003 he wrote 'Making History', a text distributed to all Australian secondary schools as part of the Commonwealth History Project. He also wrote online curriculum units for the same project.

Brian currently works part-time for the National Centre for History Education hosted by Monash University. He also teaches History part-time at QUT, and runs professional development programs for the Commonwealth History Project.

Brian has presented many keynote lectures and professional development seminars/workshops over many years in Queensland, other Australian states, PNG, the Solomon Islands and Fiji. He has also written numbers of articles for professional journals. Brian's particular interests include inquiry learning, critical thinking and values.

Brian is a member of the Executive Committee of the Queensland History Teachers Association (and a former President of that association) and was awarded Life Membership in 2002. With Rob Gilbert, Brian represents Queensland on the Regional Advisory Group of the Social Educators Association of Australia.

 Biography for Rob Gilbert

 Rob Gilbert is Professor in the School of Education at James Cook University of North Queensland. He moved to the university after a career as a teacher of geography, history and Study of Society in Queensland schools, and now teaches SOSE curriculum studies to secondary Bachelor of Education students.

Rob has had a great influence on thinking about the social sciences both nationally and on the state scene. He has been a consultant to state and national governments in social science, citizenship education and gender issues.

He was a member of the original writing team on the National Statement on SOSE, of which our state SOSE syllabus is a descendant. He was also a founding member of the national association SEAA (Social Educators Association of Australia), and gave the keynote address at the last biennial conference. In that address, he posed questions about SOSE and the future, including questions about the current status of the SOSE curriculum, what we need to hold onto from the past and what we need to create for the future, as well as questions about what students in the 21^st century need to know about their society and environment.

Rob tries to answer these questions in the book that he wrote for and edited, called Studying Society and Environment: A guide for teachers, which is well known to student teachers around Australia, and hopefully is in all teacher reference libraries. Indeed, Rob's influence has extended internationally, with a 1997 report for the New Zealand Government stating that "Gilbert's recent book arguably provides the most highly developed conception of what social studies for the new millennium needs to be and how it should be taught.  It is probably fair to say that the inclusion of Studies of Society and Environment in the Australian national curriculum and Gilbert's handbook appear to be the international flagship of social studies at the present time". Rob writes extensively for journals and books and his teacher guide is now in its third edition.

On the state scene, Rob has been a long-time member of the Social Sciences Syllabus Advisory Committee of the Board of Senior Secondary School Studies (now the Queensland Studies Authority), where he pushed for a common rationale for all social science subjects. His concern for what students need to be taught was evident in his early involvement in the development of materials for Junior Study of Society in the early 1970s. Later he held the position of State Review Panel Chair for Senior Study for Society for two terms. In more recent years, he was the leader of one of the teams which wrote drafts of the Queensland Study of Society and Environment syllabus, and spoke at trial-school teacher conferences.

Rob's passion for this key learning area is evident in his unstinting provision of time, particularly flying back and forth from Townsville for SAC meetings and trial-school conferences among other things. However, it is his foresight and deep thinking about the future of this area that has brought most respect from those who know him, as well as his balanced approach to the problems we face. A fellow member of the Syllabus Advisory Committee has stated: "On the committee, Rob has never said a thing that wasn't worth listening to". He is indeed a worthy recipient of an Honorary Membership of this new association.