Excavating the Hidden Curriculum of Schools Using Participatory Action Research

• In Event: Roundtable Session 50
  In Roundtable Session: Research Illuminating Freirean Perspectives

Abstract

In this paper, we explore how participatory action research (PAR) methods serve as a means of “reading” – in collaboration with students, teachers, and school leaders – the hidden curriculum of schools. To illuminate, we examine school-based PAR projects and discuss how PAR methods can be used to engender school-based change related to issues of equity, pedagogy, learning, and social engagement. We conceptualize Freirean theory and PAR as a hybrid conceptual-methodological frame for the development of critical research design toward the enactment of Freire’s (1998) ideal of a pedagogy of freedom.

Authors

• Sharon M. Ravitch, University of Pennsylvania

• Nicole Mittenfelner Carl, University of Pennsylvania