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  Ideology, the Hidden Curriculum and a
Complicated Conversation with the Canadian
Language Benchmarks

• Douglas Fleming PhD
•  
• Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa
• dfleming_at_uottawa.ca

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• Introduction
• This lecture engages the Canadian Language
  Benchmarks (CLB) within the context of national
  second language programming and citizenship.
• Findings from two studies
• comparing how citizenship is conceptualized by a
  sample of LINC students with how it is embedded
  within the 2000 and 2012 versions of the CLB.
• how eight experienced ESL/literacy teachers
  described how they developed over the course of
  their careers a keen awareness of the importance
  of bringing critical perspectives to their
  classroom treatment of citizenship.

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• Concepts
• Jacksons (1968) hidden curriculum
• Students learn sets of implicit rules governing
  the privileging of certain kinds of knowledge and
  classroom behavior
• the hidden curriculum also exerts control over
  teachers through curricular microprocesses and
  governmentality (Foucault, 1978).
• teachers can view engaging with documents such as
  these as complicated conversations (Pinar,
  2012).

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• Related Empirical Work in General Education
• Lynch (1989) and Connell (1982) curricula used
  in particular schools were differently framed
  according to the gender and social class of
  students
• Anyon (1980) teachers used the same curriculum
  material in different ways according to the
  socio-economic conditions within which they
  worked.
• Apple (1979) teachers are forced to divide
  curriculum knowledge into various levels of
  status, according to the socio-economic
  background of the students in question.

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• Study 1 (Fleming, 2010)
• comparing how citizenship is conceptualized
  by a sample of
• LINC students with how it is embedded within
  the CLB.
• the students conceptualized citizenship in terms
  of multiculturalism, civic rights, and a respect
  for legal responsibilities
• Linked to shifts in identity (esp. for women),
  family roles, a commitment to their new
  nation-state and access to labour and civic
  rights
• in contrast, the CLB constructed isolated,
  passive and depoliticised conceptions of second
  language learners.

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• the original 2000 version of the CLB
• the word "vote" does not appear
• rights and responsibilities almost exclusively
  related to being good consumers, but not as
  workers, family members or participants in
  community activities
• labor rights nonexistent
• improvements in the 2012 version of the CLB
• several additions of content that refer to labour
  rights
• two references to voting
• however
• there is still a heavy emphasis on consumer
  rights
• voting and labour rights are mentioned in
  reference to passive skills.

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• Study 2 (Fleming, 2014)
• eight experienced ESL/literacy teachers
  described how they
• developed an awareness of the importance of
  critical
• perspectives to the classroom treatment of
  citizenship.
• the participants in this study endorsed
  justice-orientated versions of citizenship
• they linked participatory notions of citizenship
  to critical conceptions of literacy
• they noted that they strengthened these positions
  as their careers progressed.

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• Despite claims that it is nothing more than an
  assessment instrument, as the first study shows,
  the CLB is a hidden curriculum in the sense that
  it
• encapsulates a privileged body of content and
  methods
• promotes an obedient and passive engagement with
  the nation-state
• links (rarely attainable) normative English
  language fluency with full citizenship

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• Why is this a complicated conversation?
• the CLB is nominally an assessment instrument
• to be valid as a language assessment, such an
  instrument must avoid making performance
  dependent on unfamiliar
• Canadian citizenship is (for the most part)
  unfamiliar content for newcomers to the country
• However, the CLB (esp. in the 2012 version) is
  also used to inform curriculum development
• curricular content found within the document
  becomes exemplars for classroom teachers and thus
  privileged.

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• As the second study shows, teachers can
  critically engage such documents by
• exercising professional autonomy
• designing curricula and pedagogical tasks
  tailor-made for the learners they face
• not giving in to the temptation to delay treating
  citizenship until the higher levels of second
  language proficiency
• conceptualising their engagement as an
  complicated conversation in which they own an
  equal half of the dialogue.