Hidden School Curriculum And Students’ Lived Experience: Case Study of a SAMPAD High School in Tehran

The purpose of this study is to describe the students' lived experience of the hidden curriculum in high school. The key research questions are: What is the meaning of hidden curriculum for students?, How do they experience it?, and How do they evaluate its impacts on themselves? Methodologically, this study uses the method of qualitative research with specific reference to the technique of interviews with the students. The student’s responses to these questions have been analyzed using the method of thematic analysis, which resulted in the extraction of these themes: teaching social skills, individual skills, knowing and understanding others, recognizing and fulfilling oneself, competing with others, obeying and the sense of being powerless. These provide the opportunity to gain a better understanding of the experiences of high school students with the schools’ hidden curriculum. Finally, this study used the dichotomies that were created in the minds of students through these hidden instructions. In conclusion, these research findings showed that these teachings have such negative effects as continuous anxiety and the emergence of dual identities.