Introduction to hiccup
HICCUP, the group for navigating the Hidden Curriculum in Psychology, has been a long time coming. Nirupika and I both worked as research assistants at Brooklyn College, a public-funded university within the City University of New York system. Early into our training (as a lab manager for Nirupika and as graduate student for me), we learned that our experiences didn’t parallel those of other students in higher education. Nirupika held multiple jobs during her time as a lab manager (because who can afford to have just one job?) and I had many mental health challenges during my first year as a graduate student (as I was in a new state, far from family, with no idea about what a graduate education looked like or what it could do for me). One thing we had in common, though, was our understanding of how students from underrepresented groups have unique challenges. As first-generation women of color, we understood that a career in higher education comes with its own challenges for us. After a venting session at Applebee’s (half-off apps, anyone?), we realized that much of what we’re expected to know in graduate school (or psychology more broadly) isn’t formally taught – at least not to students at public universities (like Brooklyn College) or in families without any higher education (like ours). This led us to start thinking about the “Hidden Curriculum” and how it can sometimes make it hard for students like us to succeed.
Below, we present a more formal definition of what we envision as the Hidden Curriculum, why it matters, and how we plan to address it moving forward. This post is more formal than what we will generally post, but we hope that this initial blog post sets a strong foundation for helping you define the Hidden Curriculum and think critically about it. We also hope this gets you excited to follow along as we address specific topics that you may need help with – or may already have experience navigating.
What is the Hidden Curriculum?
The Hidden Curriculum refers to a collection of “implicit academic, social, and cultural messages,” “unwritten rules and unspoken expectations,” and “unofficial norms, behaviors and values” in which all teaching and learning is situated. These expectations aren’t formally communicated or established, yet they dictate how students are expected to think and behave in school (see this Boston University post for a full description of the Hidden Curriculum). In contrast to the “formal” curriculum which is available to most students (e.g., courses), the Hidden Curriculum is passed down from well-resourced high schools and college-educated families who understand the “accepted status quo” in academia. As such, the Hidden Curriculum isn’t “hidden” to everyone; students from affluent families, well-sourced schools, or those with college-educated parents know about the Hidden Curriculum and use this knowledge to succeed in school.
In graduate school, the Hidden Curriculum is even harder to navigate for students without access to adequate resources. Ivy league and other research-intensive universities teach graduate students (whether formally or informally) how to navigate funding applications, teach unofficial norms about interacting with colleagues, and provide general guidance on how to succeed in graduate school. This knowledge is not always accessible to students from underfunded public-universities because it is either not taught, or because students from underfunded schools have to dedicate their time to navigating other challenges (like how to pay their rent). Psychology programs have hidden curricula too; psychologists have normative expectations about what qualifies as “good research” and how science should be communicated. With all of this said, we understand that the Hidden Curriculum – these unspoken expectations, assumptions, and beliefs about college, graduate school, and psychology, in particular – may not be fair or even valid. We created HICCUP (the group for navigating the Hidden Curriculum in Psychology) to challenge these implicit assumptions, make resources and informal knowledge available to graduate students, build a network of support for graduate students, and promote a more equitable field in psychology.
Why does it matter?
Most students are passive recipients to the Hidden Curriculum, which may serve to reaffirm the status quo and reproduce racial, gender, and other forms of inequality (Skelton, 1997). Students from under-sourced schools, for instance, may lack rigorous academic preparation which may lead these students to struggle with college or even drop out altogether. Students from historically underrepresented groups (e.g., first-generation, LGBTQ+, people of color, and disabled folks) may be at a particularly high risk for dropping out of college. For example, Black students are 34% more likely to drop out than the average college student, and students with disabilities are 59% more likely to dropout than students without disabilities (Hanson, 2022). Limited data exists for attrition in graduate programs, but one study found that seven-year PhD completion rates in the social sciences were only 35% for Black/African American students and 33% for Hispanic/Latino students (Sowell et al., 2015). If the Hidden Curriculum helps students succeed, and it is mainly accessible to those from well-sourced schools or affluent families, then the Hidden Curriculum puts vulnerable student populations at a disproportionate disadvantage. Learning how to navigate the Hidden Curriculum is therefore critical for promoting student success at both the undergraduate and graduate level.
Up until now, we’ve talked about the Hidden Curriculum only in terms of college readiness (or the academic stuff you need to know, like how to navigate funding). But our goal is also to shed light on other experiences that can impact your academic performance. For example, underrepresented students may struggle with feelings of guilt about leaving their families to attend graduate school or may struggle with feelings of emotional and mental burnout during racial and civic unrest – both of which can impact your performance in school. Discussions about these “non-academic” topics are generally missing from traditional teaching and learning in academia. And so, one of our broader goals is to show that these unique experiences matter and are also a part of the Hidden Curriculum.
How are we going to address it?
This group hopes to center the unique experiences of underrepresented graduate students so that we can challenge the status quo in higher education. Specifically, we aim to provide support and guidance for students struggling to tackle the Hidden Curriculum, which often puts underrepresented students at a higher risk for attrition in one’s graduate career. We will do so in two ways. First, we will have a monthly blog in which we will invite students and early career researchers to share their unique experiences with and advice for navigating the Hidden Curriculum. Second, we will host a meetup/professional development session at the 2023 Society for Personality and Social Psychology Convention where graduate students can discuss the topics posted in our blog. This meetup will serve as a supportive space for talking about the challenges of graduate school and will provide students with the opportunity to meet friendly colleagues with similar research interests, without the pressures of traditional conference networking. In helping each other navigate these barriers through both a blog and professional development workshop, we hope to promote the academic success of underrepresented students and ultimately create a more just, equitable, diverse, and inclusive field.
About the Author
Grace Flores-Robles is a 4th year PhD student at the CUNY Graduate Center and an adjunct lecturer at Baruch College. She is a first-generation college student, daughter of Mexican immigrants, and identifies as a queer woman of color.
