ABSTRACT
Educators often overlook the implicit and unspoken learning that permeates school culture. The hidden curriculum refers to the constant barrage of implicit behaviours, beliefs, attitudes, procedures, norms, systems, and structures that invariably co-exist within any educational setting. These dynamics directly shape how children internalise and understand what happens in school. To better understand the factors situating and maintaining the hidden curriculum, it is useful not only to examine how this complex idea has been theorised but also to consider a number of examples shedding light on how the hidden curriculum can permeate school environments and impact students. The hidden curriculum serves as a process of socialisation that is present and operational at all times and transmits tacit and formative messages to students that influence how they experience and make sense of school.
