Rachel Gable - The Hidden Curriculum: First Generation Students at Legacy Universities

1. vii
2. ix
3. xvii

1. Figures
2. Percentage (in category) of senior respondents less prepared, by high school, gender, underrepresented minority
3. Percentage (in category) of senior respondents less prepared, by first generation, public high school, female, Latinx
4. First and continuing generation academic satisfaction
5. Academic majors, first and continuing generation
6. First and continuing generation social satisfaction
7. Extracurricular involvement, first and continuing generation
8. Belonging, first and continuing generation seniors
9. Tables
10. Self-Reported Preparation, First and Continuing Generation Sophomores and Seniors
11. Self-Reported Preparation by High School, Gender, Race/Ethnicity
12. First and Continuing Generation Student Invitation and Participation Rates
13. Repeat Participants, by Cohort (2015, 2016)
14. First and Continuing Generation Participant Demographics

THE TITLE of this bookThe Hidden Curriculumis borrowed from a commonly used phrase among education scholars that describes the tacit rules of educational practice. If you learn those rules well and follow them closely, you will not only succeed in the particular educational context in which you find yourself but you will likely also come to believe in the naturalness, universality, and inevitability of the norms and values these tacit rules uphold. They hope that the act of identifying, acknowledging, and examining the hidden curriculum will enable those subject to itstudents, teachers, staff, and parentsto interrogate the presumed norms and values such a system upholds. As a form of cultural or social critique, to recognize and evaluate the hidden curriculum is therefore to disavow the naturalness, universality, and inevitability of the worldview it supports. Its critique also acknowledges the dimension of social interaction that, while unspoken, nonetheless wields a sizable influence on interpersonal and intercultural relations.

Every educational context has its hidden curriculum, and to identify it one may look to those for whom the educational context in question initially seems unfamiliar, surprising, or strange. At elite, highly selective universities for whom a sizable proportion of their undergraduate classes are graduates of feeder schools and the children of alumni, first generation college students who have little to no prior experience with such forms of education may offer crucial insights into the form and function of the hidden curriculum. Additionally, those who might on the surface appear as natural insiders may also critique the unacknowledged values upheld by this system, while newcomers may have an interest in hiding or passing in order to achieve personal goals. Rather than representing a single or coherent set of values, the hidden curriculum may actually comprise a congeries of contested aims and attitudes from different parties within and without the educational institution, straining for the right to define and claim the purpose of education.

Nowadays, it seems commonly assumed that first generation students have difficulty adjusting to college because they do not yet have a mental library of cultural knowledge associated with the hidden curriculum at their specific university. Therefore, the goal for concerned university administrators, staff, and faculty is to identify the hidden curriculum on their campus and educate first generation students in its complexity of expectations so that they can maximize the opportunities offered them in college. Embedded in these efforts is the assumption that continuing generation students were taught the tacit norms and rules of the hidden curriculum by their college-educated parents and the social context of their youth.

In this book, readers will discover that indeed students rightly believe there is a hidden curriculum operating in their classrooms, extracurricular organizations, and residence halls. However, it is not the case that one can neatly divide those who are aware of that curriculum from those who are not and correlate that with students who have college-educated parents and those who do not. Nor can we pinpoint a set of uncontested norms and attitudes that define a universal hidden curriculum. Instead, a hidden curriculum is often a site of contestation concerning what the institution represents, whom it serves, and how it defines success. This book shows how students from both first generation and continuing generation backgrounds grapple with the hidden curriculum in convergent and divergent ways as they identify, pursue, and achieve their goals for college and beyond. By listening to them, we can learn how to make colleges better for all students.

This book aims to examine the hidden curriculum at two historically elite universities, Harvard and Georgetown, both of which are steeped in tradition and yet strive for greater inclusivity. Here I follow ninety-one first generation students (i.e., those whose parents did not graduate from a four-year college) and thirty-five continuing generation students (i.e., those with at least one parent with a baccalaureate degree) from their sophomore through senior years in college. As it turned out, the first and continuing generation students in this study critiqued or celebrated their experiences in college at similar rates. However, the lessons that first generation students found initially surprising, but later learned to recognize and to varying degrees adopt or critique, helped illuminate each universitys hidden curriculum. The act of making explicit the heretofore tacit expectations for how to behave in college serves practical as well as normative ends. On the one hand, transforming tacit expectations into explicit guidance for future first generation students promises to inform and expand advising and counseling practices, student affairs programming, and faculty guidance on how to best support their students academic success. On the other hand, unearthing the hidden curriculum grants universities a powerful opportunity for auto-critique in a new era of expanded opportunity: whom does this university serve and what are its obligations to its constituents?

This book toggles between the two aims of practical guidance and normative critique as it traces the contours of Harvard and Georgetowns hidden curricula. The settings here are two universities intimately connected to the nations highest echelons of power and wealth. The students experiences are shaped in large part by their primarily residential campuses, sited just minutes from two of our nations most expensive urban centersBoston and Washington, DC. The process of unearthing and examining an institutions tacit norms can be applied across many different types of campuses undergoing a growth period in first generation college student attendance. From rural and suburban liberal arts colleges to state flagships, colleges can benefit from the insights of the participants in this study, which can provide opportunities for first generation students, continuing generation students, faculty, and staff. If universities wish to make good on their diversity and inclusion promises, they must first uncover and interrogate the ends their individual hidden curricula serve and who is excluded by the implicit norms that guide behavior in their classrooms and on their quads. Not all of the lessons here will apply to all types of postsecondary institutions; however, the power of their critique, especially as it makes explicit what there is to gain and what can reasonably be altered to foster inclusion and help all students to thrive, can galvanize honest campus discussions across the gamut of universities and colleges.