A “good” student can be defined in many different ways and has been defined by many different people. In Kumashiro’s article, society and schools define a “good” student as a child who behaves and thinks in a certain way; a way that is believed to be the “only right way” (2010). Educators feel a great amount of pressure from within the schools and the greater public to produce the “proper” type of student. This type of student is understood through commonsense to be a child who: participates, respects others, follows directions, offers to help out, follows rules, uses a quiet voice, pays attention, asks questions, is ready to learn, and…

The hidden curriculum is made up of the implicit, unstated lessons that are delivered in educational settings via school structures, curricular materials, and instructional practices enacted by the teacher. For example, school faculty or administrators may never make explicit the values of hard work, obedience, conformity, and persistence, but these values will be taught every day in subtle ways. “In my second year teaching at the elementary level, two biracial first graders told a Black child that she could not play because her skin was too dark. I found myself, a white female teacher, using the language of the bullying prevention programme to ignore the racialized nature of the incident…

I can recall many times in which I have experienced the Tyler Rationale throughout my education. This “traditionalist” way of looking at curriculum views it as a product and heavily focuses on objectives. I remember many classes which consisted almost entirely of textbook reading and memorization-based evaluations, which is a very traditional pedagogical approach that did not take any context into account. I always enjoyed this teaching approach as a student who excelled in test-taking and other product-type assessments. I can understand that my previous beliefs regarding this teaching model were based solely on my personal bias and success within it. I can see now how a fixation on memorization…

In this article, ‘common sense’ is defined as something that everyone should know. The idea of common sense is that through its process individuals become aware of their everyday lives and adapt to various presumptions as ‘normal’. “It’s just common sense that schools teach these things and students do those things (Kumashiro, 2009, p.XXXV). As future educators, it is important to pay attention to ‘common sense’ to become intellectually aware professionals. Common sense is an influence in curriculum and pedagogy as it limits what is considered to be consistent with the purposes of schooling. Common sense does not tell us what schools could be doing but only illuminates what they…