Hidden Curriculum

A hidden curriculum is the set of lessons a school teaches without ever intending or stating them, the norms, values and beliefs conveyed through classroom routines and the wider social environment rather than through any written syllabus. Because schools nonetheless aim for equal intellectual development among students, researchers have argued the hidden curriculum instead reinforces existing social inequalities by teaching students differently according to their class and social status, with the resulting unequal distribution of knowledge mirroring an unequal distribution of cultural capital. The concept also covers norms and behaviors that are never explicitly taught, which students with limited social awareness, such as some students with autism spectrum disorder, may not pick up without direct explanation, and it is often discussed through less structured moments such as school breaktime, where unspoken lessons about cliques, bullying, recreation and conflict resolution take shape. The term is sometimes treated as synonymous with, or a narrower case of, the broader idea of an implicit curriculum.