From Message to Strategy: A Pathways Approach to Characterize the Hidden Curriculum in Engineering Education

Victoria Sellers; Idalis Villanueva Alarcón

doi:10.21061/see.113

From Message to Strategy: A Pathways Approach to Characterize the Hidden Curriculum in Engineering Education

Studies in Engineering Education

Volume 4 (2023): Issue 2

By: Victoria Sellers and Idalis Villanueva Alarcón

Open Access

|Dec 2023

Abstract

Background: Hidden curriculum (HC) refers to the unwritten, unofficial, and often unintended assumptions, lessons, values, beliefs, attitudes, and perspectives not openly acknowledged in any given environment.

Purpose: The study goal was to identify sources of hidden curriculum within engineering educational structures and uncover how hidden curriculum was communicated to individuals, the interactions that transpired, and what individuals did because of those messages. We also examined how these messages vary by individuals’ intersectional identities.

Method: The research team collected data using the UPHEME survey, a previously validated mixed-methods instrument with quantitative and qualitative items. There were 984 responses to the UPHEME survey administration at 58 colleges of engineering across higher education institutions in the US and Puerto Rico. We quantitized the qualitative responses of participants who described hidden curriculum sources, messages, and strategies undertaken.

Results: Participants experienced HC messages, mainly that engineering is difficult and inflexible, people are underrepresented or undervalued in engineering and feel (un)supported in engineering. Women and non-binary participants with intersectional, marginalized racial and/or ethnic identities experienced HC institutionally, nonspecifically, and interpersonally. These participants changed their environments, negotiated themselves, and took no or minimal action in response to HC.

Conclusions: We described sources of HC messages and how individuals responded to the messages. This characterization has implications for engineering administrators, faculty members, and students to identify and address HC messages. In the future, we plan to analyze other qualitative aspects of the UPHEME survey and address limitations with our approach.

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21061/see.113 | Journal eISSN: 2690-5450

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Language: English

Page range: 176 - 200

Submitted on: Oct 18, 2022

Accepted on: Oct 3, 2023

Published on: Dec 14, 2023

Published by: Virginia Tech Publishing

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Keywords:

hidden curriculum,

engineering education,

pathways,

coping self-efficacy

© 2023 Victoria Sellers, Idalis Villanueva Alarcón, published by Virginia Tech Publishing
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 4 (2023): Issue 2