Work

The Hidden Curriculum: Its Impact of Peer Relationships on the Quality of Inclusion and Learning Experienced by Children with and without Down Syndrome in Early Childhood Settings

Year: 2009

Type: conference-paper

Abstract: Discrepancies have been known to occur between parents and teachers’ reports of inclusion and children’s actual experiences of inclusion. This qualitative study of 3 children with Down Syndrome (DS) and their peers (aged 3 years) in 3 different early childhood settings indicated that facilitative inclusion (the kind of inclusion that is supportive of learning and development) was not experienced by any of the children with DS. Results showed that the quality of inclusion was affected by the manner in which the explicit curriculum was implemented and by the effects of the unintended or hidden curriculum, which is the focus of this paper. Teachers and parents interviewed reported minimal awareness of how the hidden curriculum the children experienced impacted (negatively) on their learning. This study describes some of the hidden barriers faced when children with and without DS interact and concludes by illustrating how early childhood educators might facilitate children’s cognitive and social processes using incidents from the data and drawing upon recent disability and learning theories to inform such facilitation.

Source: University of Canterbury Research Repository (University of Canterbury)

Author: Christine Rietveld

Language: English

Topic: Down syndrome and intellectual disability research

Subfield: Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDGs: Quality education, Reduced inequalities, Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

Funder: University of Canterbury

OpenAlex ID: W2144297495

FWCI:

Cites: 22

Cited by:

Related to: 10