The year is 2015. Most of us were born during the first 5 years of the 1990s, and thus, have been in school for around two decades. 20 years of education, 20 years of different teachers, professors, and ultimately, 20 years of different curriculums. Our textbook titled, Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom Management describes a 21st century teacher as someone who always plans with curriculum outcomes and classroom assessment before choosing instructional outcomes (Drake, Reid, Kolohon).
Despite our inability to realize it, even in our earliest days of education in junior kindergarten, we have all been a part of curriculum in order to keep our educational goals and expectations in focus. While the curriculums are established to guide us along our educational journey, hidden curriculums that are not formally established are just as evident in our classrooms. I myself have learned about hidden curriculums since my second year at Brock in EDUC 1F95, and in every class thereafter including EDUC 4P19. A hidden curriculum as defined by edglossary.org is the unwritten, unofficial, and often unintended lessons, values, and perspectives learned in schools; for a more detailed look at the hidden curriculum visit, http://edglossary.org/hidden-curriculum/. The hidden curriculum is inevitable, and can be dissected in all aspects of our education from our curriculums, to our teachers and even our own peers.
Throughout all of our educational lives, we can pin point to certain events that exemplify a hidden curriculum, but the more astounding reality is that there are many hidden curriculums we have been taught that still to this day we have not realized. Hidden curriculums can at times be harmless, for example, I had a teacher who loved the Toronto Maple Leafs, so he always emphasized that the class should enjoy them just as he did and incorporate them into the classroom. A lot of hidden curriculum however can be very harmful to students, and impose ideologies incorporating inequality, stereotypes and biases. For example, a school textbook may use pictures or examples of students to explain lessons, but may only incorporate names that reflect a white or non-minority community. While the text is not explicitly proposing biased or racial undertones, it is reinforcing their projected image of society through class norms. "Scholars in political economy and the sociology of knowledge have recently argued that public schools in complex industrial societies like our own make available different types of educational experience and curriculum knowledge to students in different social classes." (Anyon). This reinforces the importance of recognizing hidden curriculums when dealing with different social classes amongst students. It is our job as teachers to recognize when a hidden curriculum creates an issue of equality in our classroom, and remove it so it does not become imbedded in our students education. The following image depicts an example of how something like racism is not always intentional, but is still evident through our language. Just as in this case, a teacher may not directly state negative opinions towards a social class, it may be imbedded in their hidden curriculum.
We as educators must further educate ourselves on issues of hidden curriculum in classrooms. One important way we can do this is by not ignoring the issue. If we do not confront the issue head on than we are no better than educators imposing the hidden curriculum on their students. E. rubecula's education blog: http://education.blogs.erithacus.org/MIS_EdBlog/hidden-curriculum-do-as-we.html discusses issues of hidden curriculum and the ways they are still apparent in our schooling systems. We need to celebrate diversity! We need to acknowledge that everyone is unique and different. Everyone learns differently. We must work to abolish social classes in schools. A student is a student, that is the bottom line! Hidden curriculums do not end however with just social classes. I have been a part of and observed classrooms where intelligence is the only valued trait of a classroom. Some teachers favour students who excel in school, and often times those who struggle are left behind or deemed as troublemakers. Many teachers throughout my educational experience preferred the students who received good grades, and never caused issues. Now it seems like this makes sense right? Isn't that a model student? What the education system often fails to realize is that acts of rebellion from students who do poorly are often a cry for help. Not all students learn in the same way or at the same pace, but because we have 1 teacher to work with 30 students, they often do not get the attention they need in order to learn at their own pace. This must be connected and derived from teachers' work with their students (Darling-Hammond, McLaughlin). Teacher's must work to treat all students equally and acknowledge the learning needs of each student, and not fall into an ineffective pattern of leaving students behind just because they do not learn a certain way. Furthermore, hidden curriculums will also reflect in in the students' behaviour, as they will learn to value their classmates who are not equally intelligent as unequals, making their educational experiences even more difficult.
I will leave you with this video composed by students to reflect on the issues of the hidden curriculum, and the importance of maintaining an equal classroom free of biases, stereotypes and favouritism.
Cheers for now,
Alex Graham
Sources:
Anyon, J. (1980). Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work.Journal of Education, 162(1).
Darling-Hammond, L., & McLaughlin, M. (1995). Policies That Support Professional Development in an Era of Reform; Policies Must Keep Pace with New Ideas about What, When, and How Teachers Learn and Must Focus on Developing Schools' and Teachers' Capacities to Be Responsible for Student Learning. Phi Delta Kappan, 76(8), 597-604.
Drake, S., Reid, J., & Kolohon, W. (2014). The Twenty-First Century Teacher. In Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom Assessment: Engaging the 21st-Century Learner (p. 153). Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford.
Throughout all of our educational lives, we can pin point to certain events that exemplify a hidden curriculum, but the more astounding reality is that there are many hidden curriculums we have been taught that still to this day we have not realized. Hidden curriculums can at times be harmless, for example, I had a teacher who loved the Toronto Maple Leafs, so he always emphasized that the class should enjoy them just as he did and incorporate them into the classroom. A lot of hidden curriculum however can be very harmful to students, and impose ideologies incorporating inequality, stereotypes and biases. For example, a school textbook may use pictures or examples of students to explain lessons, but may only incorporate names that reflect a white or non-minority community. While the text is not explicitly proposing biased or racial undertones, it is reinforcing their projected image of society through class norms. "Scholars in political economy and the sociology of knowledge have recently argued that public schools in complex industrial societies like our own make available different types of educational experience and curriculum knowledge to students in different social classes." (Anyon). This reinforces the importance of recognizing hidden curriculums when dealing with different social classes amongst students. It is our job as teachers to recognize when a hidden curriculum creates an issue of equality in our classroom, and remove it so it does not become imbedded in our students education. The following image depicts an example of how something like racism is not always intentional, but is still evident through our language. Just as in this case, a teacher may not directly state negative opinions towards a social class, it may be imbedded in their hidden curriculum.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/michaelblackmon/17-harrowing-examples-of-white-privilege-9hu9#.edz0Ygz5b
We as educators must further educate ourselves on issues of hidden curriculum in classrooms. One important way we can do this is by not ignoring the issue. If we do not confront the issue head on than we are no better than educators imposing the hidden curriculum on their students. E. rubecula's education blog: http://education.blogs.erithacus.org/MIS_EdBlog/hidden-curriculum-do-as-we.html discusses issues of hidden curriculum and the ways they are still apparent in our schooling systems. We need to celebrate diversity! We need to acknowledge that everyone is unique and different. Everyone learns differently. We must work to abolish social classes in schools. A student is a student, that is the bottom line! Hidden curriculums do not end however with just social classes. I have been a part of and observed classrooms where intelligence is the only valued trait of a classroom. Some teachers favour students who excel in school, and often times those who struggle are left behind or deemed as troublemakers. Many teachers throughout my educational experience preferred the students who received good grades, and never caused issues. Now it seems like this makes sense right? Isn't that a model student? What the education system often fails to realize is that acts of rebellion from students who do poorly are often a cry for help. Not all students learn in the same way or at the same pace, but because we have 1 teacher to work with 30 students, they often do not get the attention they need in order to learn at their own pace. This must be connected and derived from teachers' work with their students (Darling-Hammond, McLaughlin). Teacher's must work to treat all students equally and acknowledge the learning needs of each student, and not fall into an ineffective pattern of leaving students behind just because they do not learn a certain way. Furthermore, hidden curriculums will also reflect in in the students' behaviour, as they will learn to value their classmates who are not equally intelligent as unequals, making their educational experiences even more difficult.
I will leave you with this video composed by students to reflect on the issues of the hidden curriculum, and the importance of maintaining an equal classroom free of biases, stereotypes and favouritism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hAqss8j1yI
Cheers for now,
Alex Graham
Sources:
Anyon, J. (1980). Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work.Journal of Education, 162(1).
Darling-Hammond, L., & McLaughlin, M. (1995). Policies That Support Professional Development in an Era of Reform; Policies Must Keep Pace with New Ideas about What, When, and How Teachers Learn and Must Focus on Developing Schools' and Teachers' Capacities to Be Responsible for Student Learning. Phi Delta Kappan, 76(8), 597-604.
Drake, S., Reid, J., & Kolohon, W. (2014). The Twenty-First Century Teacher. In Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom Assessment: Engaging the 21st-Century Learner (p. 153). Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford.
