Abstract
This study employs the concept of 'hidden curriculum' to examine how course content and instruction operate to reproduce inequality within an institution of higher education. Using qualitative methodologies of participant observation, ethnographic interviews and analysis of curricular materials, we examine curriculum and pedagogy in three academic programmes--regular, all-college honours and core honours--at a private liberal arts college in the United States. Grounded in social reproduction theory, our analyses reveal differences in curricula, classroom tasks and interaction among the three programmes. Follow-up data on students' educational and occupational attainment collected 5 years after the original study (Barfels & Delucchi, 2000) are combined with information on students' social class origins, and entering educational and occupational aspirations. We find tentative support for a relationship between curriculum and students' future occupational status.
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