Hidden Curriculum (content) presentation

Yesterday in class we had a presentation that I thought was very interesting! I have actually only completed my PS1 so far, so the discussion of hidden curriculum was something that I had never heard of besides in passing. And I am sure I will learn a lot more about the topic from a process point of view tomorrow. The presenters looked at the content that is present in hidden curriculum.

Firstly, I thought this topic was interesting because it related to my last post on Bill 44, which I had just learnt about that night. Their ideas combined with what I read the night before helped me to piece the ideas together and understand it better. I do believe that parents/guardians should know and understand what their children are learning, but this does not give them the right to exclude their children from something that might be beneficial to their learning. Alberta is definitely taking a step back in education and supporting the idea of hindering the knowledge of students. We are keeping these students ignorant to ideas, and thus making them more close-minded. As teachers, we are not necessarily trying to instil ideas and beliefs into the students or brainwash them, but trying to help them learn how to think critically. Giving them two ideas such as creationism and evolution allows them to critically upon each idea. It will allow them to look beyond the basic ideas and find downfalls and beneficial points of each. Could you imagine finding out that you have had opportunities or ideas not given to you? And, what about what the student wants? Does this not matter? Do they not have a say in the content that they want to listen to? Would it be the same way around if they were the ones who did not want to learn about these things but their parents did? I enjoyed the video that we watched that showed a class in Florida where the class was split in half in terms of beliefs. Half of them believed in creationism and the others believed in evolution. Their teacher was able to guide them in ways to support what they believed and allowed them to put their ideas forward in a non-judgmental environment. I am sure that the teaching of evolution and religion can be a difficult subject, as it can be touchy, but there are many ways to help with this. It is important to respect all answers, support their commitment to their beliefs, and finally to understand that their will be disagreements.

The content in hidden curriculum are messages that are unintentionally portrayed by the teacher, administrators, textbooks, etc. They can focus on many societal issues such as race, gender, disability and religion. It was interesting to see that the hidden curriculum is present in not only things that are taught, but also in things that are not mentioned. Their case studies of looking at the textbook clearly show that we must look at what is in the textbook, but also what is excluded. When looking at the pictures, they noted that it is important not only to look at who is in the pictures, but also how the individuals are being represented. Sadly, the textbooks that we use in classrooms are made in the U.S. and do not show a clear representation of OUR population.

Overall, the presentation was really interesting and it helped me to realize that there are always implicit messages in what we do or say. These messages may be passed onto our colleagues, the parents, or the students and we need to understand this in order to eliminate confusion.