Transparency 

One of the most transformative ways that I have been prompted to think about the hidden curriculum has been through the graduate seminar I am taking about social justice theory. We are assigned one theoretical reading every week and are often given learning prompts that we are asked to think about prior to class then discuss as a group in class. Most of these learning prompts ask us to consider the practices and labour that inform how a text was produced. For example, we have been asked to consider how the material conditions of the author informed how the text was written and what kind of training and socialization they would have to undergo to be able to write this text, etc. We have also been asked to critically engage with the paratext of our readings, such as the citations and acknowledgements to unpack the ways it represents larger academic trends, social circles, and practices. (Undergraduate student)  

Transparency in the teaching of writing involves being explicit about the roles which writing assignments play in a course and how these roles translate into expected genre forms and possible textual details. Transparent teaching of writing highlights the power of genre and grammar, which includes recognizing when expectations around written or spoken ‘standard’ English are not fair, valid, or inclusive. Teaching students to examine and critique these conventions and expectations empowers them to play with the rules in ways that suit their own purposes, goals, and identities.   

The term ‘hidden curriculum’ refers to an amorphous collection of ‘implicit academic, social, and cultural messages,’ ‘unwritten rules and unspoken expectations,’ and ‘unofficial norms, behaviours and values’ of the dominant-culture context in which all teaching and learning is situated. These ‘assumptions and expectations that are not formally communicated, established, or conveyed’ stipulate the ‘right’ way to think, speak, look, and behave in school. Since the hidden curriculum invisibly governs academic achievement, it is vital for every student to learn its lessons. … Writing teachers have hidden curricula too. We have normative expectations [about ‘standard English,’ academic writing genres, academic integrity] … [that] may not be fair or even valid.  

(https://www.bu.edu/teaching-writing/resources/teaching-the-hidden-curriculum/) 

Transparent writing instruction means acknowledging and teaching the “hidden curriculum” by demystifying genre conventions, grammatical forms, and presumed purposes. Writing activities should make visible the unwritten rules and expectations of dominant discourses, grammars, and genres so that students can more easily participate in and critique these forms of writing and speaking. Transparent teaching of writing broadens the range for students’ expression by examining a variety of texts and looking at how they respond to context and make meaning at various levels.  Canagarajah (2006a) encourages us to interrogate “the text/context connection” by highlighting that the texts that are used in teaching are not “simply context-bound or context-sensitive,” but also “context-transforming” (p. 603). By discussing, in explicit ways, how textual forms interact with their contexts, students will gain insight into the dominant conventions on which writing assignments rely. Students will then be able to relate these conventions to the social context in which written genres operate, as well as be in a position to experiment with them, challenge them, and critique them. Teaching writing in a transparent way may mean looking at not only at genre and how authors and texts interact with context (Driscoll et al., 2020), but also at the more detailed lexical and grammatical choices within (Myhill et al., 2023). 

Writing instruction can take a critical grammar approach that empowers students to think about grammar critically and strategically—when to follow the rules and when to play with them, how to “negotiate grammar for their rhetorical purposes” (Canagarajah, 2006b, p. 610). Furthermore, using authentic texts and acknowledging the many layers of text—from its social situation and the authors’ identity and positionality to the texts’ purpose and major moves, down to the lexicogrammatical features within—makes explicit connections between these layers and how they’re mutually constitutive. 

Suggested activities

• Teach with authentic texts, choose a variety of samples, acknowledge the authors’ positionality, agenda and purpose in writing the text, and demonstrate how you see purpose and positionality expressed in the texts’ particular lexical and grammatical features. 
• Teach genres explicitly by assigning student work in genres of power and taking the time to unpack the typical form and function of these genres (their rhetorical features; their common variations)—ensure that the course materials which students are asked to read converge with the genres in which they are asked to write, and demonstrate for students how they can best adopt or adapt elements of what they are reading in the assignments which they are producing. 
• Teach grammar and genre in ways that highlight their power and social action (what they enable and constrain) and their evolving, fluid qualities (how they are used in varied ways, how their use changes over time) 

Use cases

Annotated bibliography

• Boston University. (2021). Teaching the Hidden Curriculum. Teaching Writing.  
• Canagarajah, A. S. (2006a). Toward a writing pedagogy of shuttling between languages: Learning from multilingual writers. College English, 68(6), 589-604.
• Canagarajah, A. S. (2006b). The Place of World Englishes in Composition: Pluralization Continued. College Composition and Communication, 57(4), 586–619.
• Dreyfus, S. J., Humphrey, S., Mahboob, A., & Martin, J. R. (2016). Genre pedagogy in higher education: The SLATE project.  Palgrave. 
• Driscoll, D.L., et al. (2020). Genre Knowledge and Writing Development: Results from the Writing Transfer Project. Written Communication, 37(1), 69–103.
• Myhill, D., Jones, S., Watson, A., & Lines, H. (2023). Playful Explicitness with Grammar: A Pedagogy for Writing. Literacy, 47(2), 103–111.
• PASS (Precedents Archive for Scholarly Speaking) at speaking.arts.ubc.ca shows student examples of scholarly speaking and uses explicit instruction to make academic speaking conventions transparent to students.