Hidden curriculum
The hidden curriculum encompasses the unspoken lessons, values, norms, and behaviors that students implicitly acquire in educational settings through interactions, institutional structures, and cultural practices, distinct from the explicit formal curriculum. [1][2] Coined by Philip Jackson in his 1968 book Life in Classrooms, the concept highlights how schools transmit societal expectations such as obedience to authority, punctuality, competition, and deference to expertise, often shaping students' attitudes toward work and hierarchy more profoundly than overt instruction. [2][3] These implicit teachings can foster adaptive skills like perseverance and time management but also reinforce conformity and social hierarchies, with empirical studies indicating their role in professional socialization, particularly in fields like medicine where they influence ethical development and identity formation. [4][5] Controversies arise from evidence that the hidden curriculum may exacerbate inequalities by disadvantaging students from underrepresented backgrounds who lack familiarity with unwritten rules, potentially perpetuating class or cultural divides, though such claims warrant scrutiny given prevalent ideological biases in educational research. [3][6][7] Despite calls to "uncover" or mitigate negative elements, its persistence underscores the causal reality that organizational cultures inevitably convey unarticulated messages, influencing long-term outcomes in behavior and worldview. [4][8]