Curriculum Design Symposium: The Hidden Curriculum - Understanding the barriers posed by the hidden curriculum that HE students from diverse cultural and social backgrounds experience in their

This presentation reports on the findings from a small-scale project that attempts to better understand the barriers that HE students from diverse cultural/social backgrounds experience in their studies using the theoretical lenses of the ‘Hidden Curriculum’ (HC) and the ‘implied student’. The study focused on students’ perceptions of and attitudes towards aspects of the HC and involved eight undergraduate/postgraduate students from Humanities and Social Sciences courses as co-researchers. The findings suggest that HE students can experience barriers just because of their previous educational cultural or social experiences and that tutors and the institution might not be adequately prepared to address such barriers.