Unpacking Class Unevenness in University Teaching: Deconstructing Hidden Curricula

Universities are usually identified as meritocratic institutions that reward efforts of talent regardless of their social origin. Yet underneath formal curricula and defined learning outcomes, a hidden curriculum operates, transmitting social norms, cultural codes, and behavioural expectations that systematically benefit students from middle and upper-class socio-economic backgrounds. Therefore, this research attempts to examine how implicit pedagogical practices, linguistic conventions, assessment cultures, and socio-politico-spatial norms in higher education institutions perpetuate socio-economic divides. By employing Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and cultural capital and Paulo Freire's framework of critical pedagogy, the paper analyses three key sites of class unevenness: the unspoken expectations of educational discourse, the deficit of low-income rural-class experience in prescribed curricula, and the performative norms embedded in classroom participation culture. The present research proposes selected critical pedagogical interventions, including dialogical teaching, reflexive curriculum design, and culturally responsive assessment mechanisms that educators could adopt to dismantle mechanisms of hidden curricula. The deficit of rural-peri-urban background students' experiences result in “objectification†that refers to the experiences of rural/peri-urban students perceiving their own communities as merely objects of study rather than sources of knowledge. The argument is not merely emphasizing universities to acknowledge socio-economic diversity, but there should be an active reconstruction of their pedagogical architectures that recognise, validate, and build upon the diverse knowledge that all students bring with them.