Hidden Curriculum as Educations Side Effects - Literature review Example

Hidden Curriculum Hidden Curriculum Introduction According to Giroux and Penna (1983), a hidden curriculum may be viewed as education’s side effects. Such side effects are learned lessons even though they were not openly intended to be taught or learned and they include the transmission of beliefs, values and norms that takes place either in the classroom or social environment. As Ball (1986) observed in the UK, the sociology of education has mainly concerned itself with analysing the relationship between social class and educational opportunities since the 1930s where social theorists advocate that education is a tool for upward mobility. However, on the other hand, Giddens (2006) argues that schools reproduce and perpetuate social inequalities that already exist in social class and race. Such reproduction and perpetuation may not be included in formal curricula but are typically traits of behaviour and mannerisms and may be understood to be unstated agendas in schooling processes. Other studies by Gilbert (2008) have also shown that such unstated agendas play a role in socialising students into performing specific skills including emotional and intellectual dependency on authority figures, exercising restraint and learning to wait as well as usual negative connotations. As Gilbert (2008) explains, such negative connotations include tendencies to become rebellious. From Ball’s (1986) and Giddens’ (2006) perspectives, this literature review will address the question “how does the hidden curriculum during schooling (mainly secondary schools) affect the educational achievement of working class young people from black Caribbean and African ethnic groups in the UK?” Specifically, the literature review seeks to understand the relationship between hidden curriculum and the low achievement of African-Caribbean students within the British school system with focus on the educational achievement of working class people from black Caribbean and African ethnic groups. Overview Coffey (2001) explains that hidden curriculum is the manner in which cultural attitudes and values are transmitted via the way schools are organised and teaching structured. Agreeing to this explanation, Gordon, Bridglall and Meroe (2005) contribute that through its operation, schools have inadvertently been teaching the realities of nationality for black people and many are made aware of the inferior nature of the rights their communities are accorded. According to Provenzo (2006), hidden curriculum found its way into the schooling system basing on the teaching structure towards the end of the 19th century as a response to the rural to urban cultural shift. As earlier explained by Gordon, Bridglall and Meroe (2005), the rural-urban cultural shift could not take place without influencing the standardisation of education. Essentially, hidden curriculum manifested itself among the by-products or side effects of the schooling system that resulted in the education system undergoing key transformations how the mass numbers of students were to be organised and educated. Therefore, it came into being as a result of the education system developing into the central socialising influence for students in the society (Giroux & Purpel, 1983). Curricula in most education systems focus on the course content and when it should be taught. However, the decisions regarding how that will be done is entirely on the teaching profession and how individual schools are organized and that is where hidden curricula arise from. Cole (2000) explains that the teachers will automatically bear with them all their previous life perceptions and experiences that will consequently get into their interaction and methodology with students. This view had earlier been presented by Giroux and Purpel (1983) and although they believe that the perspective and perception teachers have of students are formed either through bias or non-judgmental ways, students are essentially labeled in the eyes of the teacher. It follows, therefore, that when internal assessment is completed by the teacher, whatever personal opinion they have of the students will play a role in their success or failure in the education system. According to the Pygmalion Effect, the expectations of the teacher, whether wrong or right, result in students conforming accordingly (Provenzo, 2006). When students conform to the expectations of the teachers that were actually shaped by the teachers’ perception of the students, they are effectively being subjected to underlying lessons in the classroom environment. Literature Review Marxist Perspective Looking at these two perspectives critically, Myles and Southwick (2006) argue that, from a Marxist approach, the low achievement of black Caribbean and African ethnic groups in school and education can be attributed to the capitalist society. Similarly, Morris (2006) argues that both formal and hidden curricula in schools are deliberately designed to elevate middle- and upper-class students above their working class counterparts. Morris (2006) and Myles and Southwick (2006) agree that the organization of schools is not designed to offer upward mobility for minority students and the notion is based purely on stereotype. But viewed from the perspective of Myles and Southwick (2006), this can still be understood to mean that the problem of low achievement inherently lies in the way society is organised for the ruling class to exploit the working class. Here, it can be seen that this could be facilitated by the help of teachers, either willingly or unwillingly. Therefore, as Myles and Southwick (2006) uphold, being minority groups in the UK, black Caribbean and other African ethnic groups might have equal learning opportunities with other ethnicities but their achievement levels are a cause of concern. Gray (2010) agrees and while pointing out that most of the teachers went through the same system also notes that better achievement levels are reported among students of White, Indian and Chinese heritage. Further, Gray (2010) also explains that the fact that the teachers went through the same system could be a contributory factor towards their willing or unwilling facilitation of hidden curriculum. While Gordon, Bridglall and Meroe (2005) attribute the different levels of attainment to ethnicity, Giddens (2009) attribute it specifically to class. To support the argument that class is indeed a more specific contributor and ethnicity a generalised one, Gray (2010) showed that even though White students have better attainment levels than minority ethnicities, white working-class boys were the worst performers. On the other hand, Bowles and Gintis (1976) opine that national curricula and the creation of schooling and educational systems are clearly ideological and political creations. In their theory, “Schooling as Economic Reproduction”, they explain that the hidden curriculum through the correspondence principle reproduces the economic and social class structure of society within the environment of the school. Essentially, this can be understood to mean that the hidden curriculum trains students for different social and economic futures basing on their parental backgrounds that determine their economic and social pasts. Therefore, according to Provenzo (2006), ethnic minorities and lower social classes will be perceived just as such and trained to remain so, which will affect the attention they receive from teachers. As Bayanfar (2013) contributes, his study found that learning is significantly influenced by unforeseen, unintentional and non-obvious factors in the learning environment. Earlier, Margolis (2001) had pointed out that because they educate students as per their social status and class, hidden curricula reinforce existing social inequalities. For instance, black Caribbean students, especially boys, are often expected to have bad behaviour and as Morris (2006) had earlier pointed out, receive a disproportionate degree of negative attention from teachers. Basing on Gilbert’s (2008) assertions of the tendency by minority students to be rebellious, Bayanfar (2013) researched and found that that perception actually leads to differentiated attention. He further explains that such racial reductionism upholds simplistic stereotypes. For example, Bayanfar (2013) supports the idea and says that labels such as “high achieving, courteous and industrious Asians” and “low ability, disruptive” black Caribbean” could lead to black Caribbean students being underestimated or overlooked in class. In an attempt to explain the concept of self-fulfilling prophecies, Good (1987) said that teachers label students according to the expectations they form of them based on social class, ethnicity and race among several other factors. However, it is also true that once they label the students, it considerably affects how they act and react towards them and unfortunately, such labeling has negatively affected the educational achievement of working class black Caribbean students. This is a view that Giroux and Purpel (1983) support and say that prophecies are ultimately meant to make the future rather than simply tell what is in it. It therefore becomes apparent that labeling is a real risk that could lead to self-fulfilling prophecies. Provenzo (2006) explains this by saying that when teachers have high intellectual growth and achievement expectations of their students and make it known to them, the students actually tend to fulfil such expectations. Similarly, when the teachers do not encourage the students and perceive them as lacking potential, their performance will tend to be at lower levels. In the case of black Caribbean male students in the UK, studies have shown that they are perceived as unruly and aggressive, which Gray (2010) believes inadvertently subjects them to negative labeling and sanctions. This implies that teachers tend to perceive non-white students differently and actually treat them differently, with consequences on their educational achievement. Essentially, whenever students from black Caribbean and other African ethnic groups are sized down, their future behaviour and specifically educational achievement are effectively influenced negatively. In such situations, the hidden curriculum will be a function of the expectations the teachers have for every individual student basing on the way they have labeled them, and the teachers will expect the students to conform to such expectations. Further, according to Giroux and Purpel (1983), there will be a certain degree of behaviour modification in every classroom environment, which occurs when the teacher either punishes or rewards students basing on what is believed to be appropriate behaviour. However, appropriate behaviour is in most cases identified subjectively and although there might be a degree of consistency in the school system, expectations vary among individual teachers. As it was observed by Burgess (1986) exclusion from school is among the key manifestations of the hidden curriculum that are driven by the requirement of schools to publish truancy rates and examination results. From that observation, Bayanfar (2013) explains that black Caribbean students are more likely than their white counterparts to be excluded from school because of the reputation they are labeled with, which include terms such as uncooperative and difficult. According to a government statistics at the turn of the century, black Caribbean students constituted only 2% of the UK secondary school population but accounted for 8% of school exclusions (Noll, 2010). There are two main reasons for this, as explained by Bayanfar (2013). First, non-white students are defined as a problem by teachers. Second, the ethnic minorities are more vulnerable to frustration arising from poverty and racism and, consequently, exhibit behavioural problems in the classroom. Cole (2000) argues that the fact that black Caribbean and other African ethnic groups are among the minorities in the UK results in preconceived notions that bring about differential treatment, regardless of whether the notions are true or not. Essentially, as supported by Provenzo (2006), the minorities will be perceived through the stereotypes teachers and the society has of them. Then, what the students learn from the teachers ideological assumptions is considerably more important than what they learn from formally sanctioned curricula. As Martin (1983) had pointed out earlier, all learning experiences have the potential to convey unintended lessons. Hence, the concept of hidden curriculum is in reference to the knowledge gained in school settings and often bears a negative connotation even though the schools intend to provide equal opportunities for intellectual development. As Gilbert (2008) explains, students may learn to exercise restraint but at the same time develop emotional and intellectual overdependence on authority figures. Currently, according to studies by Myles, Trautman and Shelvan (2005) the theory is a more obvious contributory factor towards the low achievement of working class young people from black Caribbean and African ethnic groups in the UK. The interest here as argued by Morris (2006) is that the low achievement can be approached from either a functionalist or Marxist perspective. From a functionalist perspective, Gagnon (2001) believes that formal education plays a crucial role in maintaining social order and allocating people to their respective roles later on. On the hand, from a Marxist perspective, Myles and Southwick (2006) argue that education is a conspiracy intended to ensure that working class children are kept in their social class and prepares to exploit them. IQ Stereotype Noll (2010) insists that in the modern society in the UK, racial stereotypes are still persistent about IQ and that the general perception is that ethnic minorities are of lower IQ levels in comparison to their white counterparts. This is accepted even from the expanded view of Myles, Trautman and Shelvan (2005) in which they opine that there are three basic ways that such racial stereotypes affect black Caribbean students and they include flawed assessment, misplacement and channeling. Flawed assessments will result from assessment procedures that are socially, racially and culturally biased and always confirm the stereotype teachers hold. Myles & Southwick (2006) support this notion and contribute that from the perspective of misplacement, teacher will assess black Caribbean students and place them lower streams than should have been the case if the tests were purely based on performance. These findings were based on the study by the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics that had a similar research theme to establish what the hidden curriculum actually teaches as opposed to the formal curriculum. From the findings, it can be argued that the teachers actually assess the students basing on what they believe from stereotyping rather than what the students are actually capable of performing and achieving. Gordon, Bridglall and Meroe (2005) may have earlier supported the argument that ethnicity indeed determines attainment levels, but they agree that channeling indeed stems from stereotyping. In channeling, teachers encourage ethnic minority students to fully take part only in stereotypical parts of the curriculum and Bayanfar (2013) gives a typical example of the notion that black Caribbean boys are regarded by schools as natural athletes and better suited for sports and not academics. As Gagnon (2001) had earlier opined, this is a clear indication that the teaching fraternity is systemically discriminatory against ethnic minority students in the same way it is discriminatory against any other student that does not conform to the stereotypical “perfect” student. In this sense, (Gagnon (2001) argues that the perfect student generally refers to the middle class student and the discrimination is expressed through the curriculum, the teaching process and the school’s culture. Systemic Discrimination Bayanfar (2013) is confident that it cannot be doubted that the history of the relationship between white and black citizens in the UK has characteristically been one of systemic exploitation of the black by white people. Similarly, the modern education system has a complex functionality and does not unequivocally serve the interests of any particular group. Unlike many other arguments, Good (1987) believes that the system is equally discriminative to the interests of all ethnicities but the differences are highlighted by individual teachers, regardless of whether such interests are defined by ethnic origin or economic position. However, Gordon, Bridglall and Meroe (2005) do not agree with this view and argue that the educational system operates in a racially structured manner that positions black Caribbean and African ethnic groups more negatively and punitively than any other group. Older studies by Giroux (1983), the discussions on the meaning and implications of citizenship do reflect the realities of the inequalities that exist in the education system of England and Wales. He argues that although the government placed citizenship on the official curriculum of schools in the UK, it failed to pay adequate attention to the non-official teaching about citizenship that was already going on in the context of hidden curriculum. Equally critical of government policy, Gordon, Bridglall and Meroe (2005) say that the National Curriculum attainment tests, lesson plans and syllabuses bear unstated beliefs, values and norms that largely disadvantage black Caribbean and African ethnic groups. Essentially, as Giroux (1983) supports this view, such beliefs, values and norms are transmitted through rules that underlie the structure of the social relationships and routines in the classroom and school life. Conclusion The arguments in this literature review have shown that a hidden curriculum is education’s side effects. They are learned lessons even though they were not explicitly intended to be taught or learned and they include the transmission of beliefs, values and norms that takes place either in the classroom or social environment. This literature review has shown that indeed the hidden curriculum during schooling affects the educational achievement of working class young people from black Caribbean and African ethnic groups in the UK. In their theory, “Schooling as Economic Reproduction”, Bowles and Gintis (1976) explained how the hidden curriculum through the correspondence principle reproduces the economic and social class structure of society within the environment of the school. Through the hidden curriculum, teachers train students for different social and economic futures basing on their parental backgrounds that determine their economic and social pasts. Therefore, the teachers’ view of the students will be shaped according to how teachers perceive ethnic minorities and lower social classes. Effectively, they will train them to remain in such classes, which will affect the attention they receive from teachers. It has also been seen that hidden curriculum contributes towards the low achievement of Caribbean and African ethnic groups because of the government’s failure to pay adequate attention to the citizenship being taught in the non-formal curriculum. References Ball, S. (1986) Sociology in focus education. New York: Longman Inc. Bayanfar, F. (2013). ‘The effect of hidden curriculum on academic achievement of high school students’, International Research Journal of Applied and Basic Sciences, vol. 5, no. 6, pp. 671-681. Bowles, S & Gintis, H. (1976) Schooling in capitalist America. London: Routledge. Burgess, R. (1986) Sociology, education and schools: an introduction to the sociology of education. London: B.T. Batsford. Coffey, A. (2001) Education and social change. Buckingham: Open Press University. Cole, M. (2000) Education, equality and human rights: issues of gender, race, sexuality, special needs and social class. London: Routledge. Gagnon, E. (2001) The power card strategy: using special interests to motivate children and youth with Asperger Syndrome. Kansas: Autism Asperger Publishing Company. Giddens, A. (2009) Sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press. Gilbert, N. (2008) Researching social life. London: Sage. Giroux, H. (1983) Theory and resistance in education: a pedagogy for the opposition. London: Heinemann. Giroux, H & Penna, A. (1983) Social education in the classroom: the dynamics of the hidden curriculum. California: McCutchan Publishing Corporation. Giroux, H & Purpel, D. (1983). The hidden curriculum and moral education. California: McCutchan Publishing Corporation. Good, T. (1987) ‘Two decades of research on teacher expectations: Findings and future directions’, Journal of teacher education, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 32-47. Gordon, E, Bridglall, B & Meroe, A. (2005) Supplemental education: the hidden curriculum of high academic achievement. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Gray, C. (2010) Learning disabilities and social skills. Washington, DC: Public Broadcasting Service. Margolis, E. (2001) The hidden curriculum in higher education. London and New York: Routledge. Martin, J. (1983) What should we do with a hidden curriculum when we find one: the hidden curriculum and moral education. California: McCutchan Publishing Corporation. Morris, E. (2006). ‘Tuck that shirt in!’ Race, class, gender, and discipline in an urban school’, Sociological Perspectives, vol. 48, no. 1, pp. 25-48. Myles, B, & Southwick, J. (2006) Asperger Syndrome and difficult moments: practical solutions for tantrums, rage, and meltdowns. Kansas: Autism Asperger Publishing Company. Myles, B, Trautman, M & Shelvan, R. (2005) Asperger Syndrome and the hidden curriculum. Kansas: Autism Asperger Publishing Company. Noll, J. (2010) Taking sides: Clashing views on controversial educational issues, Guilford: Primis/McGraw-Hill. Provenzo, E. (2006) Critical issues in education: an anthology of readings. London: Sage. Read More