Hidden Curriculum

Despite their widespread popularity and rapid growth, the Internet-mediated English educational materials for learners of English as a foreign/second language (FL/SL) have rarely been analyzed in terms of their potential hidden curriculum. Accordingly, the present study aims to address this need through conducting a CDA investigation into some lessons which are randomly selected from an English educational website called “Englishcentral.” Adapting, expanding, and adopting some elements of Van Leeuwen’s (2008) Social Actor Network, the researchers attempt to describe and explain the representation of “Iran” in Englishcentral. Investigating and thematizing the research data revealed that the keyword “Iran” was used in this website to refer to three groups of social actors, namely the Iranian government and officials, Iranian people, and Iranian people and/or government/officials. The way these social actors are associated and dissociated, activated and passivated, personalized and impersonalized creates remarkable findings which give support to the presence of particular hidden agenda in this program. In all, the results of this study reveal that the Iranian social actors are portrayed unfavorably in Englishcentral, which is an alleged English educational program.

Over the past decades, education took a critical-oriented shift. This perspective changed the role of teachers, students, and classrooms. A teacher's role changes from an instructor to a reflective practitioner, a student is considered an active agent of his/her learning, and a classroom is a place for identity endeavor. The assumption underlying such an approach conceptualizes education as a means for social control, not separated from social and cultural influences. This study sought to examine the impediments overshadowing the practicality of critical language pedagogy (CLP) and to explore English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers' attitudes toward the dynamicity of transformative L2 materials preparation (TLMP) model. To undertake the study, the model was used in an M.A. language teaching methodology course with 40 prospective teachers. They were asked to write reflective journals (RJs) on several topics, followed by two class-assessments and two self-assessments, all focusing on the course procedure as well as learners' progress in attaining the intended outcomes of the course. Notably, they were requested to report their personal beliefs towards the dynamicity and functional efficacy of the proposed model and the extent to which it contributed to promoting their critical thinking skills and intellectual development. Qualitative data analysis included an in-depth content analysis of written data derived from RJs. The results attested that the participants positively appraised the practicality of the model.

Whether acknowledged or neglected by educators, the hidden curriculum is present in every institute. Therefore, studying the hidden curriculum is essential to understand how it functions within an English language institute’s setting and among those within it. The purpose of this study was to design and validate a scale to measure language teachers’ perspectives on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) hidden curriculum by the application of the Rasch model. The review of the literature indicated the lack of sufficient research on the investigation of EFL hidden curriculum components in the view of EFL teachers. To fill the existing gap in the literature, a 40-item questionnaire was devised and validated, then 164 Iranian EFL teachers, teaching at different language institutes were asked to reply to the questionnaire. In this study, hidden curriculum components were based on Saylor, Alexander, and Lewis’ (1981) perspectives. Accordingly, items were classified into three different constructs, namely the social atmosphere (including 15 items), the organizational structure of the English Language Institute (consisting of 14 items), and the interaction between teachers and learners (including 11 items). The results showed that the questionnaire items fitted the Rasch model after removing six items from the scale. Moreover, it was confirmed that the scale enjoyed suitable reliability. This proposes that the questionnaire is potentially valid and can be used as a measure of EFL hidden curriculum. One of the study implications is that the questionnaire designed and validated in this study can be used as a research tool in future research to assist policymakers and material designers, institutions’ administrators, and language teachers to be considered for future decision making, and designing materials. It also can be used as a research tool to measure the relationship between EFL hidden curriculum and other variables in future research.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the position of ethnicity in formal and hidden curricula of the new secondary education system. Methodology: The present research method was qualitative analysis of content analysis which consisted of two parts. The first part of the research included documentary analysis and content analysis. The statistical population included 51 books in the field of humanities in the second secondary school. The research sampling method was purposeful sampling and the research sample included 6 volumes of history and sociology books of the second secondary school. The content analysis unit consisted of text, images, and textbook activities. To evaluate the content validity was used experts' opinion about the degree of coordination of the content of the measurement tool and the purpose of the research. On the other hand, in order to ensure its reliability, Scott method was used. Based on the obtained reliability coefficient (79) it was quite stable. In the second part of the research, the research method was qualitative and ethnographic, and various tools such as student journals, photographs, semi-structured and informal interviews and observation were used to collect research data. To analyze the data in this section, qualitative content analysis was used by Smith method. Finally, to ensure the accuracy of the findings in this section, Triangulation method and re-referral of data to participants were used. Findings: The findings of the research in the first part showed that only 4% of the three sections of the content from the reviewed books paid attention to the 22 desirable components of ethnicity. Also in data analysis based on Smith method in the second part of the research, various themes including ethnicity neglect, teachers 'ignorance, different teachers' expectations, ethnicity as a cause of discrimination and the consequences of ethnic discrimination appeared. Each of them contained several sub-themes. Conclusion: Based on the findings, it can be acknowledged that the place of ethnicity in the formal and hidden curricula of the new secondary school system has been largely neglected. Therefore, due to the multiplicity of Iranian society, it is suggested that the curriculums of the secondary schools be completely revised to cover the necessary components for multicultural education and ethnic diversity in Iran.