Curriculum as Transmitter of Socioeconomic Values

Abstract

The social context of a sixth-grade writing project was analyzed to iden-tify both the manifest and hidden curriculum and to relate findings to expectations and norms of society by using methods of ethnographic fieldwork. Data sources included field notes, videotapes, teacher inter-views, and a student questionnaire. Findings suggest that enacted cur-riculum, i.e., a simulation game, shapes values through tacit acceptance of behavioral rules and an ascendant hierarchy of occupational roles, both of which determined unequal assets, privileges, and decision-making power, and contributed to legitimation of inequalities of a capitalistic socioeconomic system. Results of this study can alert educators to the need for making such socioeconomic norms problematic and for recon-structing curricular experiences. Writing can become not only a tool for cultural reproduction and for technology, but also a tool for critical think-ing and a stimulator of creative action for remedying injustices.