{"id":933,"date":"2025-09-26T23:33:39","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T23:33:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidtrend.com\/?p=933"},"modified":"2025-10-29T17:25:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T17:25:11","slug":"the-unwritten-rules-of-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidtrend.com\/?p=933","title":{"rendered":"The Unwritten Rules of College"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The syllabus looks simple enough. Standard language about learning objectives, assignments, and grading policies. Nothing obviously threatening or biased. But beneath those neutral-sounding lines is a web of taken-for-granted assumptions favoring some learners over others. This is the realm of what scholars term the \u201chidden curriculum\u201d to describe the unspoken rules, norms, and background knowledge that institutions use but never explicitly teach.[i]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0The hidden curriculum works through everyday academic practices, such as expecting learners to use formal language in essays, prioritizing, punctuality, and meeting deadlines, and assuming learners have access to quiet spaces for studying.<\/p>\n

Students who arrive at college already fluent in these unspoken codes (typically those from privileged backgrounds) navigate faculty expectations with ease. Their success appears natural, even inevitable. Meanwhile, anyone lacking this insider knowledge struggles against invisible barriers, their difficulties rarely attributed to systemic flaws.<\/p>\n

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Take something as basic as class participation. Most instructors value learners who speak up quickly, offer spontaneous comments, and keep discussion moving. These expectations make sense until one realizes how they privilege a narrow set of behaviors. Students who need more time to process information, prefer to write their thoughts first, or engage best through one-on-one exchanges may appear \u201cdisengaged\u201d when they are actually participating in ways the structure of the class doesn\u2019t recognize. The hidden curriculum turns learning differences into markers of academic deficiency. The insidious nature of this system lies in its ability to mask privilege as merit and to personalize any successes or failures. When affluent learners do well, their achievements get credited to individual talent, hard work, or \u201cnatural ability.\u201d When an under-resourced student struggles, the blame likewise falls on their own lack of motivation, preparation, or ability. This dynamic effectively launders systemic advantages through the language of personal responsibility, making structural inequities appear like natural outcomes.<\/p>\n

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Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in higher education\u2019s embrace of \u201cgrit\u201d narratives. Angela Duckworth\u2019s popularization of grit as a predictor of success met with initial agreement across college campuses, where administrators and faculty bought into its message of overcoming obstacles through determination.[ii]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0On the surface, this seemed like\u00a0\u00a0great advice. Why not encourage students to work hard and be \u201cresilient\u201d? But the grit narrative carried a darker payload. By focusing on individual psychological traits, it systematically diverts attention from the structural barriers that make persistence necessary in the first place. When one celebrates learners who \u201cgrit their way\u201d through poverty, discrimination, or inadequate preparation, it\u2019s essentially applauding their ability to overcome systemic roadblocks without complaint. The implicit message is that if you can\u2019t succeed despite hostile conditions, the problem lies with your character, not the conditions themselves.<\/p>\n

This framework proves particularly harmful for learners from historically minoritized backgrounds, who find themselves caught in an impossible double bind. If they struggle academically, their difficulties get attributed to insufficient effort. If they succeed, their achievements get credited to exceptional grit.\u00a0\u00a0Either way, the focus is diverted from institutional reform. It\u2019s worth mentioning that this individualistic lens conveniently absolves institutions of responsibility for creating more equitable learning environments. The psychological toll of constantly navigating these hidden barriers extends far beyond academic performance. For many learners, whether they\u2019re first in their families to attend college, neurodivergent, students of color, LGBTQ+, or members of other historically excluded groups, many describe feeling like perpetual outsiders in spaces that weren\u2019t designed with them in mind.[iii]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0This sense of not belonging isn\u2019t just uncomfortable.\u00a0\u00a0It can be educationally devastating. When learners feel unwelcome or unsafe, their cognitive resources get diverted from learning to survival. They spend mental energy monitoring their environment for threats, managing their emotional responses to microaggressions, and constantly questioning whether their struggles reflect personal inadequacy or systemic hostility. This hypervigilance is exhausting, creating health risks caused by chronic stress.[iv]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Universities have become particularly skilled at avoiding these issues. Rather than examining how their policies, practices, and cultural norms might contribute to student difficulties, they invest in stress management workshops, mindfulness programs, and resilience training. The underlying message suggests that learners need to develop better coping mechanisms rather than institutions needing to create more supportive environments. This approach effectively privatizes what should be understood as public problems, turning systemic issues into individual responsibilities. The classroom dynamics that emerge from these broader patterns reveal themselves in subtle but powerful ways. Sara Ahmed\u2019s work on \u201caffective economies\u201d has helped foreground how emotions circulate through educational spaces, sticking to certain bodies and creating invisible boundaries between learners and faculty.[v]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0In predominantly white institutions, for example, students of color often report feeling hyper-visible when discussions turn to race or diversity, suddenly expected to speak for their entire demographic group or defend perspectives they may not personally hold. These affective dynamics shape how learners listen, respond, and engage with course material in ways that go far beyond those immediately affected. When discussions about racism, sexism, or other forms of systemic oppression arise, white learners frequently exhibit reaction formations of denial or deflection of the kind so politicized in recent years.[vi]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This too is its own form a student resistance.<\/p>\n

This \u201caffective attunement\u201d to classroom spaces creates uneven learning opportunities that reproduce rather than challenge existing hierarchies. Learners who feel comfortable and welcome can take intellectual risks, ask questions, and engage in the kind of vulnerable exploration that deep learning requires. Students who feel unwelcome or under surveillance learn to minimize their presence, avoid controversial topics, and protect themselves from additional exposure to harm. The resulting educational experiences differ dramatically, even when learners sit in the same classroom and ostensibly receive the same instruction. Faculty often remain oblivious to these dynamics, particularly when their own educational histories align with institutional norms. They may interpret learner silence as disengagement, student criticality as disrespect, or inclusive measures as special treatment. This misreading of learner needs can create feedback loops that intensify rather than interrupt problematic patterns.<\/p>\n

Added together these collective dynamics can generate an atmosphere of intimidation operating below the surface of overt action or speech. They manifest in conditions learners feel before they can articulate, especially since many arrive at college with expectations of a positive experience. Michel\u00a0\u00a0Foucault explored many of these often hidden dynamics in his critiques of institutional authority.\u00a0\u00a0Foucault formulation of the disciplinary mechanism he termed \u201cbiopower\u201d applies well to the forces within higher education that shape not just what students learn but how they experience themselves as learners.[vii]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0More than a mere fixture of hidden curriculum, this can be seen in the emerging use of data surveillance systems collecting learning analytics that track learner online behavior to early warning systems that flag \u201cat-risk\u201d students based on algorithmic assessments, which monitor and categorize learner performance in increasingly granular ways.<\/p>\n

Often originating as well-meaning learner support mechanisms, these systems paradoxically can increase rather than reduce learner anxiety. When students know their every click, attendance record, and assignment submission is being tracked and analyzed, they can feel like subjects of institutional observation rather than partners in educational endeavors. The constant data collection creates a \u201csurveillance pedagogy\u201d transforming learning spaces into sites of perpetual evaluation and control.[viii]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0Learner resistance in the context\u00a0constitutes a form of counter-conduct to reclaim self-worth in response an institution reducing them to statistics and potential problems.[ix]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Here again, what administrators interpret as boredom, anxiety, silence, or avoidance may actually represent strategic responses to\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0oppressive or dehumanizing environments.<\/p>\n

The neoliberal demand that individuals \u201cmanage\u201d their emotions and adapt to hostile conditions without structural support complicates this picture further. Students who struggle with anxiety, depression, or other conditions find themselves caught between institutional expectations for emotional self-regulation and lived experiences of systemic stress. When universities respond to learner mental health crises by expanding counseling services while maintaining the very policies and practices that generate distress, they effectively medicalize social problems and individualize collective struggles. This medicalization process proves particularly harmful for learners whose difficulties stem from navigating systemic oppression rather than intrinsic psychological pathology. A First-Gen learner overwhelmed by unfamiliar expectations doesn\u2019t primarily need therapy. They need institutional support for developing the cultural capital their peers inherited. A student experiencing racial microaggressions doesn\u2019t need medication, but rather a campus environment that actively challenges rather than tolerating discriminatory behavior.<\/p>\n

Campuses typically don\u2019t scramble for answers until significant numbers of learners begin to struggle, drop out, or fail to thrive. When they do respond, quick fixes like additional screening mechanisms, remedial programs, or support services often backfire by further stigmatizing difference rather than addressing underlying causes. These well-intentioned interventions can inadvertently create what sociologists term \u201cdeficit frameworks\u201d that locate problems within students rather than examining systemic issues.[x]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Breaking free from these patterns requires more than good intentions or diversity programming. It takes a comprehensive examination of how everyday institutional practices reproduce failure. This means scrutinizing everything from curriculum design and assessment methods to residence hall policies and campus traditions that may unfairly disadvantage certain learners. It also means recognizing that learner resistance often contains valuable information about institutional shortcomings. When students report feeling unwelcome, unsafe, or unsupported, their experiences deserve serious consideration as evidence about campus climate. Addressing this\u00a0\u00a0requires fundamental changes to institutional structures, policies, and practices. This work is neither simple nor comfortable, but it\u2019s essential for creating educational environments where all learners can thrive. Most importantly, it means understanding that hidden barriers aren\u2019t accidental byproducts of institutional operation but systematic features that serve particular interests.<\/p>\n

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[i]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0Henry A. Giroux,\u00a0Theory and Resistance in Education: Towards a Pedagogy for the Opposition<\/em>\u00a0(Westport: Bergin & Garvey, 2001).<\/p>\n

[ii]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0Angela Duckworth,\u00a0Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance<\/em>\u00a0(New York: Scribner, 2016).<\/p>\n

[iii]<\/sup><\/a>Claude M. Steele,\u00a0Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do<\/em>\u00a0(New York: W. W. Norton, 2010).<\/p>\n

[iv]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0Arline T. Geronimus, \u201cThe Weathering Hypothesis and the Health of African-American Women and Infants,\u201d\u00a0Ethnicity & Disease<\/em>\u00a02, no. 3 (1992): 207-221<\/p>\n

[v]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0Sara Ahmed,\u00a0The Cultural Politics of Emotion<\/em>\u00a0(Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004).<\/p>\n

[vi]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0Robin DiAngelo,\u00a0White Fragility: Why It\u2019s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism<\/em>\u00a0(Boston: Beacon Press, 2018).<\/p>\n

[vii]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0Michel Foucault,\u00a0Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison<\/em>\u00a0(New York: Vintage Books, 1977).<\/p>\n

[viii]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0Peter McLaren and Zeus Leonardo, \u201cDead Poets Society: Deconstructing Surveillance Pedagogy,\u201d\u00a0Studies in the Literary Imagination<\/em>\u00a031 , no. 1 (Spring 1998): 127.<\/p>\n

[ix]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0Michel Foucault,\u00a0Security, Territory, Population: Lectures at the Coll\u00e8ge de France 1977-1978<\/em>\u00a0(New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).<\/p>\n

[x]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0Tara J. Yosso, \u201cWhose Culture Has Capital? A Critical Race Theory Discussion of Community Cultural Wealth,\u201d\u00a0Race Ethnicity and Education<\/em>\u00a08, no. 1 (2005): 69-91<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The syllabus looks simple enough. Standard language about learning objectives, assignments, and grading policies. Nothing obviously threatening or biased. But beneath those neutral-sounding lines is a web of taken-for-granted assumptions favoring some learners over others. This is the realm of what scholars term the \u201chidden curriculum\u201d to describe the unspoken rules, norms, and background knowledge … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Unwritten Rules of College”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[104,260,107,258,111,259,124,86],"class_list":["post-933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-college","tag-curriculum","tag-equity","tag-hidden-curriculum","tag-learning","tag-rules","tag-students","tag-teaching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidtrend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidtrend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidtrend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidtrend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidtrend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=933"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/davidtrend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":943,"href":"https:\/\/davidtrend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933\/revisions\/943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidtrend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidtrend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidtrend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}