Editing Hidden curriculum (section)

== Function ==

Although the hidden curriculum conveys a great deal of knowledge to its students, the inequality promoted through its disparities among classes and social statuses often invokes a negative connotation. For example, [[Pierre Bourdieu]] asserts that education-related capital must be accessible to promote academic achievement. The effectiveness of schools becomes limited when these forms of capital are unequally distributed.<ref>Gordon, Edmumd W., Beatrice L. Bridglall, and Aundra Saa Meroe. Preface. Supplemental Education: The Hidden Curriculum of High Academic Achievement. By Gordon, Edmumd W., Beatrice L. Bridglall, and Aundra Saa Meroe. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2005. ix&ndash;x.</ref> Since the hidden curriculum is considered to be a form of education-related capital, it promotes this ineffectiveness of schools as a result of its unequal distribution. As a means of social control, the hidden curriculum promotes the acceptance of a social destiny without promoting rational and reflective consideration.<ref>Greene, Maxine. Introduction. The Hidden Curriculum and Moral Education. By Giroux, Henry and David Purpel. Berkeley, California: McCutchan Publishing Corporation, 1983. 1&ndash;5.</ref> 

According to Elizabeth Vallance, the functions of hidden curriculum include "the inculcation of values, political socialization, training in obedience and docility, the perpetuation of traditional class structure-functions that may be characterized generally as social control."<ref>Vallance, Elizabeth. "Hiding the Hidden Curriculum: An Interpretation of the Language of Justification in Nineteenth-Century Educational Reform." The Hidden Curriculum and Moral Education. Ed. Giroux, Henry and David Purpel. Berkeley, California: McCutchan Publishing Corporation, 1983. 9&ndash;27.</ref> The hidden curriculum can also be associated with the reinforcement of social inequality, as evidenced by the development of different relationships to capital based on the types of work and work-related activities assigned to students varying by social class.<ref>Anyon, Jean. "Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work." The Hidden Curriculum and Moral Education. Ed. Giroux, Henry and David Purpel. Berkeley, California: McCutchan Publishing Corporation, 1983. 143&ndash;167.</ref>

Although the hidden curriculum has negative connotations, it is not inherently negative, and the tacit factors that are involved can potentially exert a positive developmental force on students. Some educational approaches, such as [[democratic education]], actively seek to minimize, make explicit, and/or reorient the hidden curriculum in such a way that it has a positive developmental impact on students. Similarly, in the fields of [[environmental education]] and [[education for sustainable development]], there has been some advocacy for making school environments more natural and sustainable, such that the tacit developmental forces that these physical factors exert on students can become positive factors in their development as environmental citizens.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Earth in mind: On education, environment, and the human prospect|last=Orr|first=D.|publisher=Island Press|year=2004|location=Covelo, CA}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Sustainable education: Re-visioning learning and change|last=Sterling|first=S.|publisher=Green Books|year=2001|location=Devon, UK}}</ref>