Hidden Curriculum

Critical Thinking

This week you learned about how a “Hidden Curriculum” can impact student success in an Urban Education setting. Hidden curriculum is a set of important social skills that everyone knows, but no one is taught. However, because we work in classrooms with a wide variety of student backgrounds, those untaught social norms, expectations, idioms, and metaphors can be lost on our students.

Think about the following scenario:

Charlie was a popular sixth-grader, despite having to skip extracurricular activities because he was expected to ride the bus to his mother’s office every day after school because she worked long hours. One day Charlie was riding to school in the car with his mother when she began cursing in frustration about her work schedule. Charlie picked up on the cursing and associated it with frustration. The bell rang and Charlie went on to his first class. As he sat down, Charlie realized that he left his math book in his locker. His teacher, Mr. Way, would not let him go back to his locker, and immediately Charlie got upset and began to curse. Mr. Way sent Charlie to the principal’s office, leaving Charlie confused about what he did wrong. He thought it was okay to use curse words when he was frustrated at school. Charlie did not understand the hidden curriculum — cursing may be acceptable by adults at home, but you should never curse when addressing an adult at school.

You will write a 1-2 page analysis of what Hidden Curriculum means to you. How would you react in the scenario shared above? Include references to course readings or other research articles you found in the UHD Library databases in order to support your work.

Submit your paper in the Week 5 folder. Ensure it is well-written, well-organized, and adheres to the UHD APA Guidelines (https://library.uhd.edu/apa).