Work ethics in the official and hidden curriculum

Abstract

Work is central to human activity and combines both mental and physical activities. The way work is perceived nowadays transcends from a variety of beliefs and ideologies which shaped man's attitudes and values towards it. However work ethics are dynamic and continue to evolve around the experiences of humans as social beings. As a result there are many socialising agencies, which influence the orientations as well as the attitudes and values of persons towards work. For the purpose of our study we focused on schools, which are important socialising agencies, and tried to examine how they transmit and inculcate these values of work through the hidden and official curriculum. Furthermore, we also intended to see whether schools are reproducing or transforming these work ethics on the basis of gender and social class. Three secondary schools namely a Girls' and Boys' Junior Lyceum and an independent co-educational school were chosen as a basis for our data collection. A triangulation of research methods comprising both qualitative and quantitative methods text analysis, participant observation and questionnaire respectively was implemented. The conclusion reached from our findings is that schools tend to reproduce a work ethic which is synonymous with the social background of the pupils. This is done in some cases irrespective of the fact that the school-to-work messages in textbooks view non manual work as having higher status than manual work. Furthermore the need to divert a traditional female orientation to work to one where girls view work as a lifelong career is necessary if the aspirations of the female workforce are to be on a par with their male counterparts.