The Other Side of the Hidden Curriculum: Correspondence Theories and the Labor Process

Abstract

Many analyses of the hidden curriculum have been strongly influenced by correspondence theories, theories which posit a mirror image relationship between the norms and values taught in school and those “required” in the economy. Correspondence theories, however, often miss the elements of resistence, contradiction, and relative autonomy that occur in schools and in the workplace. Studies of the work culture document the past and continued existence of such elements, elements which mediate and can provide the potential for transforming the pressures for social reproduction. We must be very careful of romanticizing such resistance, however, for the terms are often set by owners, not workers. The existence of resistence and contradiction is important, though, since it provides for the possibility of educational action in the face of the power of the hidden curriculum.