The Role of the Hidden Curriculum: Institutional Messages of Inclusivity

Abstract

Significant attention is rightly given in literature concerning institutional curricular change to the design and delivery of the formal curriculum. Particularly influential in this area has been Biggs’ work on constructive alignment (Biggs, 1999, and subsequent editions) and the learning taxonomies which higher education has sought to utilise in the alignment process (Biggs & Collins, 1982; Bloom, 1956). However, the role of the hidden curriculum (Giroux & Purpel, 1983), much discussed in the context of school education for many years, has barely featured in the discourse around learning and teaching in higher education. In this reflective analysis, I consider the question, ‘To what extent do the learning communities we create and the hidden curriculum which frames them foster or fight the development of capabilities needed by our global students?’ and propose the hidden curriculum to be an area we can no longer neglect.

Rethinking the meaning of study abroad programs: The learning experiences of two female Gambian students in Taiwan

“…Vallance's description of hidden curriculum exposed the discrepancies in the formal curriculum in American schooling. Killick (2016) argues higher education institutions bring the exposed and interrogated hidden curriculum into alignment with the formal curriculum (i.e., when it comes to curricula change). Killick's view on the curriculum messages is they can only conflict with the intended curriculum.…”

“…For instance, when foreign students are affected by group inequalities, seeing the other as competitor, the privileging of native speaker language competencies, and holding divergent task orientation and goals, there is a lack of formal recognition of the value of positive intercultural per se. Killick (2016) suggests these factors can contribute to students' transformative learning as competent, who learns from multi-perspectives and who values viewing the world from multiple worldviews.…”

A Qualitative Discourse Analysis of Ontario University Websites: Exploring the Value Systems of Teacher Education Webpages

“…The strong features of hidden curriculum are identified as the features of educational process that reproduce systems of privilege, and social and cultural inequality (Cotton et al, 2013). Unlike hidden curriculum, the formal curriculum is developed through a series of curriculum deliberations where its objectives, values, and beliefs undergo scrutiny, quality assurance, and revisions from external specialists (Killick, 2016). In contrast, the HC does not receive a similar degree of critical scrutiny.…”

“…Institutions of higher education have been shown to transmit features of value systems that contribute to the reproduction of social inequality through the curriculum, and institutional mediums such as university websites (Apple, 2011;Cotton et al, 2013;Killick, 2016;Lažetić, 2019;Savage et al, 2013;Tomášková, 2015). The cultural, political and/or social values transmitted are informed by educational beliefs and percolate through the curriculum and teaching practices.…”

“…The curriculum specialists' bodies of experience shape their beliefs, knowledge and assumptions (BAK), and value systems, which are filtered through the process of deliberation and embedded in the final product -the formal curriculum (Schwab, 1973;Fox, personal communication, July 2, 2019). While the formal curriculum is formulated after rounds of deliberation, and critical scrutiny, hidden curriculum (HC) does not receive a comparable degree of examination (Killick, 2016). HC is defined as, "The unpublicized features of school life" (Jackson, 1968 pp.17) and the gap between what is intended to be taught and what is learned (Cotton et al, 2013).…”