Hidden Curricula in Formal-Schooling and Eliminating Practices with a Performative Turn in Gender Studies

    The most important social establishment that accommodates educational opportunities for human beings is the schools (Çubukçu, 2012). In schools, a formal educational curriculum is followed to provide students with the necessary skills and information to contribute to students’ emotional, social, and academic development. However, Çubukçu states that "teachers can be subjective in practice about which courses and subjects are important"(2012). All these subjective practices are a part of a hidden curriculum. Alsubaie (2015) states that the “concept of a hidden curriculum refers to the unspoken or implicit values, behaviors, and norms that exist in the educational setting”. These hidden values, behaviors, and norms are affecting students' understanding of the world, contribute to and shape the students' identities which also include their gender and gender performance. And identities have a lot of impact on creating social norms. It is stated that gender is socially formed with human interaction and understanding, rather than biologically designated (Berkowitz, Manohar, & Tinkler, 2010; Lee, 2014; Lorber, 1994; Odhiambo, 2012; West & Zimmerman, 1987). Butler (1988) proposes that gender is “a constructed identity, a performative accomplishment”. In light of this information, this paper will try to discuss the question of how can a performative turn in gender studies help us eliminate practices of hidden curricula which cause segregation.

        In the article Lee (2014) says that “the sources of hidden curricula include textbooks, a teacher’s use of language, standard learning activities, and the social structure of the classroom, among others”. Its power to alter learners’ mind and life can’t be underestimated. Teachers have to be careful about what to say, do, and encourage in order not to cause segregation. Sometimes teachers might point out discriminative elements in formal education and urge on a more humanistic point of view, especially about gender. However, there is a language in use, cultural understanding, and representation of gender and gender roles that is hard to scrape off of people’s minds. And teachers are a part of this society. According to Saldıray & Doğanay's(2017) research, "findings clearly show that the teachers have stereotypes which are unequal for the social genders”. The language of the speaker is the first element that shows unequal behavior. “Good morning boys and girls” is an innocent yet discriminatory statement. Discriminating class as boys and girls just from the beginning establishes a ground for segregation. The minute teacher calls out one group they acquire a sense of belonging and thus excluding “the opposite side”. The school’s environment, mission, and vision are as important as the teacher’s behavior. Study on school practices in Junior Secondary Schools in Ghana and Botswana declared that;

 “Even when forced to share a desk, the students would avoid any interchange, speaking only to the nearest student of the same sex. Interestingly, this provided the teachers with a discipline strategy in which a misbehaving boy would be made to sit among the girls (Dunne, 2007). 

        Gender separation is made as a normal and even required strategy to discipline students. Watson in the article says (2005) “informally, students learn about the values and norms of their particular school culture through peer socialization and interactions with school authorities”. Schools might not encourage female students to participate in sports competitions as they support male students within or outside the school. Football tournaments are the best example of this situation. Girls are not encouraged or sometimes allowed to play football since they start getting into the playgrounds with other kids. A rather “soft” sports are taught. When the P.E. teacher distributes balls for free practice hours, girls usually get softer balls that won’t hurt them. It’s prevalent when a girl wants to join a soccer team she is regarded as a ‘tomboy’ amongst her peers. Football is full of masculinizing denotations and practices which highly contribute to the production of male hegemony (Swain, 2000). Swain also studies the area of a school where football is played. And it was found out that space was dominated by male students and access was restricted. Though, one could find girls marginalized, on the corners, or walking around.

        Moreover, there are all-girls and all-boys schools and classrooms. There is no doubt that in a mixed-gender society education in separate schools and classrooms might cause problems later in social life. There are external pressures to keep men and women on divided educational and business paths, such as subtle forms of discrimination and social control that channel women into female-dominated fields of study and jobs (Barone, 2011; Jacobs, 1995). In women’s colleges, there is a liberal arts curriculum that has an emphasis on pro-training for the female tasks of homemaking and teaching comparable to pro-training for male tasks such as business or law (Turpin, 2010). In that sense, the curriculum is supporting the way cultural norms and roles for women and men are established. 

       Other sources of hidden curriculum are textbooks. Linguistic sexism that might be seen in textbooks has detrimental real-world and damaging pedagogical outcomes, especially for females (Lee, 2014; Mustapha, 2012). Some examples can be marked terms for occupations (female doctor, waitress, hostess, etc.), gender roles attributed to males and females (mother cooking, father fixing the car), etc. It can be seen that the coursebook tried to show both female and male representations for the job. Though 'doctor' is portrayed as male while 'nurse' is portrayed as a female (Appendix 1). Girls are extremely affected by this discrimination which limits their views, dreams, and the things they can achieve with the power they have.

     In addition to this, in classroom activities, boys might be associated with sports, cars, and online games while girls with shopping, cooking, and pets. And in elementary and secondary education, even in higher education, it’s common for children to interact mostly with the people who are one of the same kind. Formation of groups and teams as ‘boys team’ and ‘girls team’ in-class activities is very prevalent. Similar to that in Turkish schools it’s very common to celebrate a special occasion in classrooms. Even then it can be seen that girls are the ones that organize and usually prepare the food while boys just bring paper utensils and soft-drinks for the organization. Certain societal roles are attributed to females and males which shape their gender. However, these practices of segregation powered by hidden curricula are changing with performative turn in gender studies. 

    Gender is a multidimensionally, socially constructed self. Seeing gender as performance rather than just sex might solve discriminative acts happening due to hidden curricula. Change and respect in society start with language. Encouraging schools, teachers, and learners to acknowledge people around them by not their gender, but according to the person they are. Teachers have to be role models and encourage their students regardless of their gender or sexuality. Realizing that femininity is not a feature of women or masculinity is not a feature of man can affect our language. Calling people by nicknames, showing power through certain hobbies and interests may not be a part of life. If gender becomes secondary, the power of knowledge, success, and achievement can come first. Teachers can establish a new classroom culture where everyone treats each other equally during the activities, break times, and social events. Parents, schools, and teachers should make sure that female students get the same attention, care, and acknowledgment as male students. Overall, assigning any societal roles to genders cause segregation in school life, later in work and social life. When encountered with discriminative language in textbooks and behavior in schools, teachers and authoritative figures can start a discussion to raise awareness and maybe change perspective.

        In the article Lee (2014) says that “the sources of hidden curricula include textbooks, a teacher’s use of language, standard learning activities, and the social structure of the classroom, among others”. Its power to alter learners’ mind and life can’t be underestimated. Teachers have to be careful about what to say, do, and encourage in order not to cause segregation. Sometimes teachers might point out discriminative elements in formal education and urge on a more humanistic point of view, especially about gender. However, there is a language in use, cultural understanding, and representation of gender and gender roles that is hard to scrape off of people’s minds. And teachers are a part of this society. According to Saldıray & Doğanay's(2017) research, "findings clearly show that the teachers have stereotypes which are unequal for the social genders”. The language of the speaker is the first element that shows unequal behavior. “Good morning boys and girls” is an innocent yet discriminatory statement. Discriminating class as boys and girls just from the beginning establishes a ground for segregation. The minute teacher calls out one group they acquire a sense of belonging and thus excluding “the opposite side”. The school’s environment, mission, and vision are as important as the teacher’s behavior. A study on school practices in Junior Secondary Schools in Ghana and Botswana declared that;

 “Even when forced to share a desk, the students would avoid any interchange, speaking only to the nearest student of the same sex. Interestingly, this provided the teachers with a discipline strategy in which a misbehaving boy would be made to sit among the girls (Dunne, 2007). 

        Gender separation is made as a normal and even required strategy to discipline students. Watson in the article says (2005) “informally, students learn about the values and norms of their particular school culture through peer socialization and interactions with school authorities”. Schools might not encourage female students to participate in sports competitions as they support male students within or outside the school. Football tournaments are the best example of this situation. Girls are not encouraged or sometimes allowed to play football since they start getting into the playgrounds with other kids. A rather “soft” sports are taught. When the P.E. teacher distributes balls for free practice hours, girls usually get softer balls that won’t hurt them. It’s prevalent when a girl wants to join a soccer team she is regarded as a ‘tomboy’ amongst her peers. Football is full of masculinizing denotations and practices which highly contribute to the production of male hegemony (Swain, 2000). Swain also studies the area of a school where football is played. And it was found out that space was dominated by male students and access was restricted. Though, one could find girls marginalized, on the corners, or walking around.

        Moreover, there are all-girls and all-boys schools and classrooms. There is no doubt that in a mixed-gender society education in separate schools and classrooms might cause problems later in social life. There are external pressures to keep men and women on divided educational and business paths, such as subtle forms of discrimination and social control that channel women into female-dominated fields of study and jobs (Barone, 2011; Jacobs, 1995). In women’s colleges, there is a liberal arts curriculum that has an emphasis on pro-training for the female tasks of homemaking and teaching comparable to pro-training for male tasks such as business or law (Turpin, 2010). In that sense, the curriculum is supporting the way cultural norms and roles for women and men are established. 

       Other sources of hidden curriculum are textbooks. Linguistic sexism that might be seen in textbooks has detrimental real-world and damaging pedagogical outcomes, especially for females (Lee, 2014; Mustapha, 2012). Some examples can be marked terms for occupations (female doctor, waitress, hostess, etc.), gender roles attributed to males and females (mother cooking, father fixing the car), etc. It can be seen that the coursebook tried to show both female and male representations for the job. Though 'doctor' is portrayed as male while 'nurse' is portrayed as a female (Appendix 1). Girls are extremely affected by this discrimination which limits their views, dreams, and the things they can achieve with the power they have.

     In addition to this, in classroom activities, boys might be associated with sports, cars, and online games while girls with shopping, cooking, and pets. And in elementary and secondary education, even in higher education, it’s common for children to interact mostly with the people who are one of the same kind. Formation of groups and teams as ‘boys team’ and ‘girls team’ in-class activities is very prevalent. Similar to that in Turkish schools it’s very common to celebrate a special occasion in classrooms. Even then it can be seen that girls are the ones that organize and usually prepare the food while boys just bring paper utensils and soft-drinks for the organization. Certain societal roles are attributed to females and males which shape their gender. However, these practices of segregation powered by hidden curricula are changing with performative turn in gender studies. 

    Gender is a multidimensionally, socially constructed self. Seeing gender as performance rather than just sex might solve discriminative acts happening due to hidden curricula. Change and respect in society start with language. Encouraging schools, teachers, and learners to acknowledge people around them by not their gender, but according to the person they are. Teachers have to be role models and encourage their students regardless of their gender or sexuality. Realizing that femininity is not a feature of women or masculinity is not a feature of man can affect our language. Calling people by nicknames, showing power through certain hobbies and interests may not be a part of life. If gender becomes secondary, the power of knowledge, success, and achievement can come first. Teachers can establish a new classroom culture where everyone treats each other equally during the activities, break times, and social events. Parents, schools, and teachers should make sure that female students get the same attention, care, and acknowledgment as male students. Overall, assigning any societal roles to genders cause segregation in school life, later in work and social life. When encountered with discriminative language in textbooks and behavior in schools, teachers and authoritative figures can start a discussion to raise awareness and maybe change perspective.

References 

• Alsubaie, M. A. (2015). Hidden curriculum as one of current issue of curriculum. Journal of Education and Practice, 6(33), 125-128. 

• Barone, C. (2011). Some things never change: Gender segregation in higher education across eight nations and three decades. Sociology of education, 84(2), 157-176. 

• Berkowitz, D., Manohar, N. N., & Tinkler, J. E. (2010). Walk like a man, talk like a woman: Teaching the social construction of gender. Teaching Sociology, 38(2), 132–143. 

• Butler, J. (1988). Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory. Theatre Journal, 40(4), 519. doi:10.2307/3207893 

• Cubukcu, Z. (2012). The effect of hidden curriculum on character education process of primary school students. Educational Sciences: Theory and Practice, 12(2), 1526-1534. 

• Dunne, M. (2007). Gender, sexuality and schooling: Everyday life in junior secondary schools in Botswana and Ghana. International Journal of Educational Development, 27(5), 499-511. 

• Jacobs, J. 1995. ‘‘Gender and Academic Specialties: Trends among College Degree Recipients during the 1980s.’’ Sociology of Education 68:81–98. 

• Lee, J. F. (2014). A hidden curriculum in Japanese EFL textbooks: Gender representation. Linguistics and Education, 27, 39-53. 

• Lorber, J. (1994). Paradoxes of gender. New Haven: Yale University Press Odhiambo, C. (2012). The name game: Using insults to illustrate the social construction of gender. College Teaching, 60(1), 25–30. 

• SALDIRAY, A., & DOĞANAY, A. (2017). ÖRTÜK PROGRAMDA TOPLUMSAL CİNSİYET: BİR İLKOKULUN ÖRTÜK PROGRAMINDA TOPLUMSAL CİNSİYETE İLİŞKİN NİTEL BİR ÇALIŞMA. Electronic Turkish Studies, 12(25). 

• Swain, J. (2000). 'The Money's Good, The Fame's Good, The Girls are Good': The role of playground football in the construction of young boys' masculinity in a junior school. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 21(1), 95-109. 

• Watson, G. (2005). The hidden curriculum in schools: Implications for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer youth. Alternate Routes: A Journal of Critical Social Research, 21. 

• West, C., & Zimmerman, D. H. (1987). Doing gender. Gender and Society, 1(2), 125–151. 

• Appendix 1. Holland, B. National English, I’m a Genius 2, Workbook.