ABSTRACT
This research-to-practice chapter targets prospective and current engineering educators, scholars, and leaders who are interested in learning how hidden curriculum (HC) in engineering can be transformed through social capital. HC represents the unacknowledged and often-hidden lessons or messages that hinder individuals, especially from marginalized populations, from successfully navigating their environments. HC propagates through social networks and relationships, resulting in patterns of behavior that guide how individuals navigate the structures and systems in which they are embedded. This chapter begins with an overview of HC research, discusses the connection to social capital, and introduces an HC pathways model in engineering. We introduce three HC archetypes to describe engineering stakeholders: seekers, bridgers, and agents. Seekers become aware of HC and use social capital to navigate it, bridgers surround themselves with kindred peers to support each other, and agents enact strategies and practices to challenge systems and structures. We provide example of a curriculum that aligns with these archetypes and have specific recommendations based on the US and Canada contexts for different stakeholders in engineering education.
