A 2018-19 Education Incubator Research Project
‘The hidden rules of the game’ (Portelli, 1993)
From a student: ‘Exeter was a culture shock to my system; it is overwhelmingly white and regularly gripped by racism scandals’
1. The problem Previous educational and cultural experiences of students can vary significantly between students from diverse backgrounds. Yet such background can act either as facilitator or barrier to equal participation to a high-quality Higher Education experience – this has often been described as the Hidden Curriculum.
Hidden Curriculum is a term coined by Jackson (1970) to describe a tendency of school curricula to reproduce the inequalities of wider society. The term gradually took a broader meaning to express any type of often unintentional learning that is not prescribed by formal curricula.
Understanding the barriers posed Education Lorem by the Hidden Curriculum 2. How we tried to explore it Methodology: 1. We adopted a participatory approach in that students were involved as co-researchers 2. We developed scenarios on the topics below: Assumed students – do tutors assume that students have specific characteristics, backgrounds and experiences? Academic values – how are implicit values in social sciences/ humanities presented in teaching and how students navigate this? Being one of a kind – how do you work with minorities in the class without alienating them? Structure of learning – how do you navigate student engagement? 3. We conducted focus group interviews with other students, using scenarios (see example) as stimuli for discussion An example scenario:
Hidden assumptions: •
It is Alex’s first seminar at university. Over the course of the term, it becomes apparent that the lecturer is likely anti-Brexit. When asked to write an essay on the matter, should Alex argue what he believes or what he thinks the seminar leader wants to hear?
•
All students are comfortable to express their own and challenge others’ and tutors’ opinions The university is a place where different opinions are welcome
The project aims to: 1. explore Higher Education students’ perceptions of the Hidden Curriculum 2. make aspects of it explicit young white social The British implied straight student able-bodied living away from home without financial (Stevens, 2007) worries • or family/ caring responsibilities • • • • • • • •
3. Preliminary findings and reflections Preliminary findings: v Some students from less advantaged backgrounds can feel they do not fit well with the culture v There seem to be myths about how the university operates, e.g. admission quotas v The current way students access and interact with personal tutors could be improved v International and domestic students can often be seemingly divided, e.g. accommodation, INTO v Curriculum can be, in some cases, “Eurocentric” v There might not be a space or encouragement for minority groups to express their views Reflections from our team: ‘Taking an “objective” stance in the focus groups was a welcome challenge and I learnt a lot from engaging with people I otherwise would never have had conversations with because of my own biases’.
Project team: Clare Smyth, Deniz Fujita, Rose Day, Rebecca Munday, Suzi Rockey, Shivani Bhatt, Alex Westlake, Hannah Muskett, Anna Mountford-Zimdars (CO-I, GSE), George Koutsouris (PI, GSE) – for info contact G.Koutsouris@exeter.ac.uk