"Courting" the Hidden Curriculum: Depictions of Sexuality and Implications for Heteronormativity in ELT Materials from Taiwan.

Abstract

While the Taiwan government has embraced a progressive stance toward LGBT rights, especially through legalization of same-sex marriage and the adoption of educational policy aimed at promoting LGBT rights in the schools, there is little sense of the role of English language teaching (ELT) in this issue. Since English study is important in Taiwan, this project responded by employing hidden curriculum theory to address the possible role of English language teaching (ELT) materials authored and used in Taiwan in reproducing or disrupting the marginalization of LGBT people. This study operationalized the target hidden curriculum as instantiations of norms implicit within sexuality representations such as depictions of dating behaviors and family structures. The resulting critical content analysis provided evidence that LGBT people were almost entirely invisible and were discursively othered when present, thus providing evidence that ELT materials from Taiwan represent a heteronormative hidden curriculum. These results illustrate the importance of attention to the hidden curriculum in designing educational materials, as a part of materials adoption decisions, and as a dimension of teacher training. Explicit policy and what was actually being taught via the hidden curriculum being at odds in this case bolsters the argument for such actions.