HIDDEN CURRICULUM PAPER

Hidden Curriculum and the Factors that Affect Instruction



Hidden Curriculum and the Factors that Affect Instruction

Introduction

Depending on the level of analysis used, several factors mediate the interactions between English-speaking school personnel and students who enter their classrooms speaking another language. Some of these factors are as obvious as the linguistic mismatch between teacher and learner when the teacher does not speak the child's language, the prime focus of bilingual education. Others are more subtle and difficult to detect, and still others are almost totally overlooked by even the most well-meaning teacher or school leader. This paper provides background information on hidden curriculum. Moreover it also analyzes three factors that influence hidden curriculum. Provide examples of those factors.

Background Information

Gatto (2001) mentions hidden curriculum has its historical roots. Arguably, the most important factors in the latter group are those associated with the hidden curriculum of the schools, the many things that schools teach but are almost always unspoken and unwritten, although they are present in most lessons and classrooms. Students of the hidden curriculum hold that schools do more than simply transmit knowledge, as contained in the official curriculum guides used by schools. By promoting a narrow view of what it means to be a serious student and demonstrate good behavior, schools “teach” important lessons that are rarely examined because they are so deeply engrained in the culture of schools and society. The hidden curriculum is as important as the proclaimed curriculum in defining what it means to teach.

Analyzing the Factors that Influence Hidden Curriculum

There are lots of factors that affect instruction in hidden curriculum. The concept of a hidden curriculum has been addressed by scholars from several distinct points of view, which are summarized briefly in this entry.

The Hidden Curriculum and the Issue of Equity

The phrase hidden curriculum is often attributed to Phillip Jackson; in the mid-1960s, Jackson promoted the view that schooling (education) is part of the socialization process by which society recreates itself in the next generation. Benson Snyder used the same phrase to explain why college students often reject what formal education offers them. Snyder believes that campus conflict and students' (Gatto, 2001) personal problems may be caused by a generalized but poorly understood angst created by ill-fitting academic and social norms that thwart the students' ability to develop independently or think creatively.

González (2003) mentions more recent thinking concerning the hidden curriculum has focused on the harmful effects that the unexamined impact of the hidden curriculum can have on minority youngsters, who are even less prepared to question what the schools demand of them. Scholars concerned with this particular set of issues believe that the hidden curriculum can inflict damage even when the schools do not intend to do so. Perhaps the first appearance of this issue before the general public occurred in 1954 in the U.S (González, 2003). Supreme Court finding in the Brown v. Board of Education decision. In its famous “Footnote 11,” the Supreme Court relied on research presented by a pair of psychologists, ...