summarize the attached article by Linda Bain called The

summarize the attached article by Linda Bain called The

Hidden Curriculumsummarize the attached article by Linda Bain called The Hidden CurriculumThe hidden curriculum consists of implicit values taught and learned through the processof schooling. The first section of this paper describes theoretical and methodologicalapproaches to research in this area drawing examples from general education literature.The second section reviews research related to the hidden curriculum in physical education.The final section proposes a model for feminist analysis ofthe hidden curriculumin sport and physical education.The term hidden curriculum has been used extensively in educational literaturesince the early 1970s to refer to what is taught to students by the institutional regularitiesby the routines and rituals of teacher/student lives (Weis 1982 p 3) Some time agoI discussed the hidden curriculum in physical education in Quest 24 (Bain 1975) Nowa decade later it seems appropriate to re-examine the topic in light of the research completedsince that time.Interest in the hidden curriculum provided much of the early impetus for examiningthe lived culture in schools and for use of qualitative research methodologies in educationalresearch A review ofthe theoretical bases for this research may shed light not onlyon the hidden curriculum but also on theoretical issues related to qualitative research.Although the hidden curriculum in physical education has received only limited attentionthe research completed has extended our knowledge of the implicit values communicatedby physical education programs.Approaches to the Study of the Hidden CurriculumFour approaches to the study of the hidden curriculum can be identified in generaleducation literature. This review will rely primarily upon American authors but it is importantto note that they were influenced by European social theory in general and Britishsociology of education in particular. Although many researchers can be identified withineach of the four approaches. Table 1 identifies one representative work that exemplifieseach of the approaches being describedPhillip Jackson (1966 1968) conducted some of the earliest research on the topicand popularized the term hidden curriculum Jackson conducted intensive observationsof elementary school classrooms and noted that the day-to-day conduct of schooling seemedto be a powerful mechanism for transmitting values and beliefs to children. He describesAbout the Author: Linda L Bain is with the Department of Health Physical Education andRecreation at the University of Houston TX 77004145146 BAINTable 1Approaches to the Study of the Hidden CurriculumTheoreticalperspective1 AtheoreticalII Functionaiist theoryIII Correspondence theoryIV Critical theory ofreproduction and transformationMode ofanalysisObservation anddescriptionTheoretical anaiysisTheoreticai analysisEthnographic andphenomenologicalstudies and theoreticalanalysisRepresentativeworkJackson Ute in ClassrootDS1968Dreeben On Wtiat is Learnedin Sctiools 1968Bowles & Gintis Schooling inCapitalist Arfierica 1976Appie & Weis Ideology andPractice in Schooling 1983those classrooms as characterized by crowds (the homogenous grouping of students) power(the authority of the teacher and the powerlessness of students) and praise ( a teachercontrolledsystem of evaluation). He suggests that students leam patience acceptance ofimpersonal prescriptive authority and distinctions between work and play. Students alsoleam to conform to institutional expectations but to maneuver in this setting by seekingprivilege through apple polishing and by hiding behaviors that might displease thosein authority Jacksons work could best be described as atheoretical in that he describedthe events in classrooms without attempting to relate those descriptions to a theory aboutschooling and society. While such work clearly has limitations it served an importantrole in raising the issue of the impact of the hidden curriculum. Debate ensued about whetherthese routines and rituals of schooling were functional or dysftinctional harmfiil or harmless.Some early examinations of the effects of the hidden curriculum were based upona functionalist perspective which examined how the school prepares students for effectiveparticipation in adult society Robert Dreebens (1968) analysis of what is learned in schoolssuggests that the hidden curriculum is an effective mechanism for teaching students essentialnorms. Specifically he suggests that students leam the norms of independence achievementuniversalism and specificity. That is students leam to work independently and toaccept responsibility for competing against a standard of excellence. Children also leamto accept that in public life in contrast to family life one is treated by others as a memberof a category (universalism) and that the scope of one persons interest in another is confinedto a narrow range specific to the purpose of the interaction (specificity). This permitsstudents to distinguish between persons and their social positions a capacity Dreebendescribes as crucially important in occupational and political life. He suggests that schoolingoccupation and politics are reasonably well integrated and that schools contribute to thecreation of capacities required by the political economic system.Not everyone who examines the hidden curriculum sees it as beneficial to students.Critics claim that the schools contribute to the maintenance of political and economic systemsof domination exploitation and inequality and that the hidden curriculum is a central aspectof this process. Although several writers have proposed such a correspondence betweenTHE HIDDEN CURRICULUM 147school and society the most complete analysis was proposed by Bowles and Gintis (1976)in Schooling in Capitalist America. They posit that through the day-to-day regularitiesof schools students learn social class de&iitions the discipline of the workplace thelegitimacy of hierarchical arrangements and loss of control over their own work. The correspondencetheory suggests that the hierarchically structured patterns of values normsand skills that characterize the work force and the dynamics of class interaction undercapitalism are mirrored in the social dynamics of the daily classroom (Giroux 1981a p. 6).It should be noted that both the functionalist and the correspondence analyses of therelationship between schooling and society assume that certain meanings and values aretaught by schools without examining directly the meanings held by teachers and students.Both also view the school as functioning to maintain society but they differ in their judgmentas to whether such a society is fundamentally just or unjust.The most recent work on the hidden curriculum builds upon the neo-Marxistanalyses of the correspondence theorists but rejects both their determinism and their treatmentof the school as a black box (Apple 1979 1982; Giroux 1981a 1981b). Apple(1982 p. 14) argues that schools are not merely institutions of reproduction institutionswhere the overt and covert knowledge that is taught inexorably molds students intopassive beings who are able and eager to fit into an unequal society. He suggests thatstudent reinterpretation at best only partial acceptance and often outright rejection ofthe planned and unplanned meanings of schools are more likely. For this reason schoolscontain the potential for both reproduction and transformation of society. To understandthe hidden curriculum one must study the lived culture of the school and analyze its relationshipto the structure of the larger society. Such research assumes that knowledge issocially constructed (Berger & Luckmann 1966) and begins with an analysis of meaningthat utilizes ethnographic and phenomenological studies. However this analysis of meaningis combined with an analysis of ideology and reproduction (Apple 1978). The recentwork edited by Apple and Weis (1983) contains several examples of research employingthis analysis of both meaning and ideology. Other important examples are Paul WillissLearning to Labour (1977) a study of working-class boys in a comprehensive secondaryschool in England and Robert Everharts (1983) Reading Writing and Resistance a studyof an American junior high school.The steps involved in conducting research on schooling following this criticaltheory model are outlined below. In contrast to the positivist approach which assumesresearch to be value-free this perspective sees all knowledge including research as sociallyconstructed and therefore begins with a clarification of the standpoint of the researcher.Steps 2 and 3 take the researcher inside the black box of the school to observe behaviorand to discover its meaning to teachers and students. This microanalysis is followed bya macroanalysis of the relationship of the lived culture to the reproduction or transformationof class race and gender relations. Because the researcher is not assumed to be valuefreebut instead a politically committed person the final step in the process is the identificationof actions which might assist in the transformation of schools and society anapproach sometimes called emancipatory or radical pedagogy (Giroux 1981a 1981b).The five steps in the implementation of a critical theory approach are these:1. Identification of the standpoint of the researcher;2. Description of patterns of behavior;3. Analysis of the participants social construction of meanings;4. Analysis of ideology and social relations;5. Identification of action to assist transformation.148 BAINResearch on the Hidden Curriculumin Physical EducationWhile little if any of the research on the hidden curriculum in physical educationhas employed the approach just described the steps outlined in that model serve as a usefulway to organize the review of the research. Almost all studies of the hidden curriculumin physical education have assumed the positivist stance of value-free research and thereforehave not made the researchers standpoint explicit. Most of this work seems to be eitheratheoretical or based upon a liberal functionalist perspective which endorses the basic justiceof a meritocratic society but calls for reforms to guarantee equal opportunity for all Afew scholars have made explicitly critical analyses of sport in society (Boutilier & SanGiovanni 1983; Gruneau 1975; Hargreaves 1982) but they have not included analysisof pedagogical process in sport and physical education.Some of the work on the hidden curriculum in physical education can best becharacterized as descriptions of patterns of behavior fitting step 2 ofthe model. My studiesof secondary physical education classes in Chicago (Bain 1975 1976) and of physicaleducation classes and athletic team practices in Houston (Bain 1978) used systematic observationto describe regularities of teacher behavior and class organization which communicatedvalues and norms to students. Male and female classes were compared hut noattempt was made to examine the meanings that teachers and students attached to theseroutines nor to examine their relationship to social theory. The research indicated thereare patterns of behavior in physical education classes that can be interpreted as emphasizingorderliness achievement universalism specificity autonomy and privacy and thatdifferences exist between the experiences of male and female students urban and suburbanstudents and athletes and physical education students.Recent work which examines the causes and effects of teacher expectations inteaching and coaching performs a similar function of describing patterns of behavior (MartinekCrowe & Rejeski 1982). Although this work does not specifically address the hiddencurriculum it has considerable relevance. In general the research on teacher expectationsin physical education indicates that teachers perceptions of students are influencedby gender appearance and perceived effort and that these expectations influence the interactionsbetween teacher and student in a way that is consistent with the teachers expectations(Martinek 1983)The second set of research studies on the hidden curriculum in physical educationare those which have attempted not only to describe behavior but to examine the meaningsthat participants attach to those experiences. These studies have employed ethnographicand phenomenological research methodologies Tindall (1975) conducted a participant observationstudy of physical education classes and a community basketball program. His analysisindicated that the game of basketball was experienced as a lesson in proper personalbehavior. The premise underlying the game that individuals ought to and do control otherindividuals was accepted hy most students hut rejected by those for whom it conflictedwith their native American cultureWang (1977) conducted a participant observation study of a fifth grade physicaleducation class. She discovered a teacher-sponsored curriculum and a separate contradictorystudent-imposed curriculum. The teacher-sponsored curriculum promoted an ideal of integrateddemocratic living in which rules of individual worth were tempered with emphasisupon cooperation equality and social responsibility. The student-imposed curriculumrevealed patterns of discrimination based on gender race social class personality andskills. Skillful sport performance had a property-like nature in the student society WangTHE HIDDEN CURRICULUM 149suggests that a more active instruction in skills might be the most effective way to counterdiscrimination.Kollen (19811983) conducted a phenomenological inquiry into the perceptions of20 high school seniors regarding their physical education classes. Based on her interviewsshe concluded that the physical education environment is perceived as sterile (stressingconformity) and unsafe (characterized by embarrassment and humiliation). Students respondto the environment by withholding something of themselves through minimal compliancelack of involvement manipulation of the teacher false enthusiasm rebellionleaving failing class isolation or giving up (Kollen 1983 p. 87). Kollen suggests thatthe movement standard in physical education is masculine-athletic-competitive and thatit creates a fi-agmented rather than an integrated movement experience.Griffin (1983) observed sixth and seventh grade gymnastics classes and foundthat students behavior revealed patterns of differentiation based on sex. Serious participationin specific gymnastics events was governed by perceived sex appropriateness of the event.Boys participated in girl appropriate events either frivolously or reluctantly; girls participationin boy appropriate events was exploratory or reluctant. Boys limited the girlsopportunity to learn by hassling them and limited their own opportunity to learn by clowning.Girls did not limit boys opportunity to learn but spent most of their time trying toignore boys or separate themselves from them. Students segregated themselves by sexand reinforced that segregation by sex differentiated participation and interactions.These ethnographic studies which address the social construction of meaningsin the physical education setting reflect an important step forward in the research. Theyhave extended our understanding of the hidden curriculum in those settings and have suggestedaspects of social relations such as gender which may have relevance for examiningthat hidden curriculum. However they have not attempted a systematic analysis of therelationships of the lived culture of sport and physical education to social structure andideologies. Apple (1978 p. 500) suggests that such omission may in fact lend supportto the existing social order: Without the overt recognition of the subtle connections betweenideology and meaning research that is limited to a description of meaning coulditself be considered an aspect of reproduction. For this reason physical educators interestedin the hidden curriculum need to proceed to the final steps of the model analysisof ideology and determination of action. The final section of this paper will address thispossibility.Feminist Analysis of the Hidden Curriculumin Physical EducationThe fundamental goal of research on the hidden curriculum is not only to understandthe experience of schooling but also to comprehend the relationship between schoolingand society. We live in a patriarchal society in which the maintenance of gender rolessupplies society with the most basic form of hierarchical social organization and order(Eisenstein 1981). Patriarchal power results in sexual division of labor and a divisionbetween the public (male) and private (female) domains of life. The critical componentof patriarchal ideology is the transformation of the biological role of woman as childbearerinto the political role of woman as childrearer. The assignment of motheAood as the primaryoccupation of women in society has functioned to maintain and to legitimate the politicaland economic inequities in patriarchal societies (Firestone 1970).Patriarchy interacts with the economic mode of society but is a relatively autonomoussystem operating alongside the economic system not derived from it. Patriarchy150 BAINhas thrived in feudalist capitalist and socialist societies. Nevertheless to understand theoperation of patriarchy in a particular society one must examine it in relation to the structureof that society. This analysis will focus upon patriarchy and sexism in the UnitedStates It should be noted that while this analysis focuses upon sexism it is recognizedthat the efforts of sexism interact with those of racism and class. The concentration uponsexism is not intended to diminish the importance of either race or classAmerican society can be characterized as a capitalist society based on an ideologythat has been identified as liberal because of its emphasis upon the values of independenceindividualism and equality of opportunity Jaggar and Struhl (1978) have identified fourapproaches to feminism in America Most widespread is a liberal feminism which endorsesthe basic principles of the existing society and seeks to ensure that the doctrineof equal opportunity is extended to include women. The assumption is that if women areallowed equal access to education employment and political office the present inequitiesof status will disappear. The other three forms of feminism that Jaggar and Struhl identify(Marxist feminism radical feminism and socialist feminism) assume that basic structuralchanges in society are needed in order to eliminate patriarchy and the oppression of womenalthough they differ on the kind of changes needed.Most feminists regardless of category would concur that the system of patriarchyand sexism is maintained both by force Gaws and practices that discriminate against women)and by ideology (beliefs about gender that are accepted by men and women). The hiddencurriculum in schools may incorporate discriminatory practices and transmit a genderbasedbelief system.This gender-based ideology may be accepted or resisted by students and teachersAnyon (1982) suggests that gender development involves not so much passive imprintingas active response to social contradictions Girls have to cope with and resolve contradictorysocial messages about appropriate behavior for females on the one hand andappropriate behavior for achievers in the competitive world of school and work on theother Anyon suggests that their responses often involve both accommodation and resistanceto these contradictions.Examining the hidden curriculum from a feminist perspective is particularly importantin physical education because ofthe strong association between sport and masculinity(Boutilier & SanGiovanni 1983) and because ofthe extreme feminine concern aboutthe appearance ofthe female body (Brownmiller 1984; Chemin 1981; Orbach 1978)The liberal feminist emphasis in such research tends to focus upon equal opportunity: girlsaccess to instruction practice and playing time A critical analysis must go beyond thisto an examination ofthe culture in physical education as it relates to and maintains patriarchy.Several aspects of the lived culture in physical education seem worthy of study.The way in which the individualistic competitive performance environment affects malesand females is of particular importance Willis (1982 p 120) suggests that critical theoryaccepts differences in sport performance between men and women accepts that culturalfactors may well enlarge this gap but is most interested in the manner in which this gapis understood and taken up in the popular consciousness of our society He asks whysome differences but not others are viewed as important. Why for example are differencesin strength important while differences in flexibility are not? Willis argues that sports performanceserves to reinforce ideology about male supremacy. He and others (Boutilier& SanGiovanni 1983; Felshin 1974; Heide 1978) have suggested that feminists mayneed to redefine sport and its standards of performance if sexism is to be eliminated.THE HIDDEN CURRICULUM 151A second area to be investigated is the social construction of body image for malesand females Heinemann (1980) proposes that the body is a social fact that the handlingof the body the regulation and control of its functions and our attitudes toward it arenot natural but socially created Willis (1982) indicates that the media treatment ofwomen in sport often has a sexual innuendo in which the sexual identity often takesprecedence over the sport identity of female athletes Chemin (1981) suggests that womensobsession with diet and exercise reflects a dislike for the female body KoUen (1981) foundthat students in physical education classes experience self-consciousness and embarrassmentas a result of being continually on display. Each of these threads suggest that physicaleducations role in the development of body image needs to be examined.The final aspect of the hidden curriculum in physical education that requires examinationfi-om a feminist perspective is the dualism which reflects and reinforces the separationof the private and public domains of life. Such a division which sees the public domainof work and politics as the mans world and the private realm of the family andemotion as the womans sphere is at the heart ofthe patriarchal system (Eisenstein 1981)This separation is ideologically represented by the dualisms of mind and body instrumentaland expressive activity and work and play. To the extent that physical education programsrefiect such dualisms they may reinforce the sexual division of labor in society.ConclusionThis paper has attempted to examine the theoretical bases for research on thehidden curriculum summarize related research in physical education and propose a modelfor feminist analysis of the hidden curriculum in sport and physical education. To someextent it refiects my own journey from a naive atheoretical description of the hiddencurriculum to a radical feminist analysis of how patriarchal society is reproduced andtransformed in the process of schooling particularly within sport and physical education.This analysis has focused upon sexism but pervasive effects of class and especiallyrace in sport and physical education should also be noted. Future examinations ofthe hiddencurriculum need to investigate each of these (gender class and race) not only separatelybut in interaction with each other.The final step in the critical theory model for research is the identification of actionwhich leads to transformation of society. One role of the research is to identify gapsand tensions in the process of social reproduction which provide possibilities for politicalaction (Giroux 1981a) Giroux (1981c p 218) states While it would be naive andmisleading to claim that schools alone can create the conditions for social change it wouldbe equally naive to argue that working in schools does not matter