The Effect of hidden curriculum on gaining democratic values: a qualitative study in two elemantary schools having low and high quality of school life

IVABSTRACTTHE EFFECT OF HIDDEN CURRICULUM ON GAINING DEMOCRATICVALUES: A QUALITATIVE STUDY IN TWO ELEMANTARY SCHOOLSHAVING LOW AND HIGH QUALITY OF SCHOOL LIFEMediha SARIPhD Dissertation, Department of Educational SciencesSupervisor: Asst. Prof. Dr. Ahmet DOĞANAYMarch-2007, 459 pagesThe schools which have a responsibility for bringing up good citizens indirection of society?s desires, can hardly manage this responsibilities only throughcourse content which are placed into overt curriculum. Because, those which are tryingto teach through overt curriculum can not go further on transmitting the knowledge.This point is especially important for gaining democratic attitudes and values whichmust be lived rather than taught. For this reason, it should be created a hiddencurriculum in schools in where democratic values lived and make other live and so, thishidden curriculum should support to adopt these knowledge, skills and values which aretrying to teach through overt curriculum, as a kind of life. It can be said that, regulationsdone by this direction promote increasing the quality of school life and, students?feeling theirselves happy and in safe. As so, in one hand they grove up as a citizen withgood character and on the other hand they learn the necessary knowledge and skillswhich required for their real life situations.In this study which needed to done because of these reasons, the main purpose isto determine the level of quality of school life in elementary schools which are locatedin Adana central province and to investigate deeply in detail the functions of hiddencurriculum on gaining process of respect to human dignity, equality and respect toenvironment which are basic democratic values in two schools having low and highquality for school life.VThe population of this study for quantitative data consisted of all teachers whowere working in elementary schools which are located in Adana central province in2004-2005 educational year and all students who were attending to these schools. Thesample was drawn in two phase: In the first phase, all teachers who were working at theschools with low, middle and high socio-economic status which were selected by usingclustered sampling and were voluntary, participated to the study. In addition, studentsfrom 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th grades in those schools were also selected randomly foradministrating the Quality of School Life Scale (QSLS). For this sample data werecollected from 2254 students and 428 teachers from 17 elementary schools. Throughanalyzing the data which obtained by QSLS, two schools which have least and highestlevel of quality of school life were selected according to scores taken from the scale. Inthe second phase, through administration of Devotion to Democratic Values Scale to595 fifth grade students, it was determined one fifth grade classroom from each of theseschools in which the observations and interviews were done. At the end of theobservations, equally from two schools, 10 teachers, 16 students and 10 parents wereinterviewed.Data were collected through ?Quality of School Life Scale? (QSLS) which wasdeveloped in the scope of this research, ?Devotion to Democratic Values Scale?(DDVS), interview schedules, personal information form and through unconstrainedobservations. To analyse the quantitative data, descriptive statistics were used. Inaddition factor analysis, correlation, reliability, independent samples of t-test, variance,Kruskall Wallis and Mann-Whitney U analysis were also performed. In analysingqualitative data which were obtained through observations and interviews contentanalysis techniques were used.Findings which were reached through QSLS both by total scores and bysubscales show that, the level of quality of school life in schools located in Adanacentral province was over average, and students perceived the quality of their school lifemore positive than their teachers. In comparing quality of life in schools in terms ofsocio-economic status, according to teachers? and students? viewpoints, the least levelof quality of school life was at low socio-economic status schools.Observations and interviews results show that, teacher whose classroom wasobserved in school which has high level of quality of school life show the behaviours ofVIequality and respect to human dignity more than the teacher who was at school whichhas low level of quality of school life. It was also found that, in the school which havehigh quality of school life, students have the values of equality and respect to humandignity at the upper level than those who were at school has low quality of school life.In addition, it terms of teacher-students relationships, ruling process and sanctions ofthe rules, social activities in school, school-family relationships and characteristics ofhome environment, the hidden curriculum in the school which has high quality ofschool life has more positive features than the hidden curriculum in the school has a lowlevel of quality of school life. However, the hidden curriculum in two schools aresimilar in some features such as school administrator who show antidemocraticbehaviours both for teachers and students, teachers who show very few modelbehaviour about value of respect to environment, preferring traditional sittingarrangement in rows in classrooms, not taking enough the students? interest, desires andcapabilities into consideration in giving tasks and responsibilities and insufficientphysical conditions of the schools.As a result, although it?s doze is different, the hidden curriculum in both schoolshave inappropriate features for democratic values. In terms of most of the variablestaken into consideration in the study, the hidden curriculum in school which have lowquality of school life has more antidemocratic features. And also, students in this schoolshow antidemocratic behaviors more frequently too. These results show that the hiddencurriculum of the school have important functions on students? gaining of basicdemocratic values.In direction of these results, it is suggested that, administrators and teachers maybe trained through in-service education courses to actually having the basic democraticvalues and to create a school culture on the base of these democratic values. It is alsosuggested that, authorities of National Ministry of Education should do regulationscover not only the overt curriculum but also the hidden curriculum in schools andshould quarantined real equal opportunities in physical and foundations facilities amongschools. Furthermore, it is suggested that some opportunities should be created in theappropriate times in the schools for educating families about different subjects related toschool and students.Key Words: Hidden Curriculum, Overt Curriculum, Quality of School Life,Quality of School Life Scale, Democratic Values