Space and physical environment as a hidden curriculum: Comparing schools in Thailand
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Issued Date
2025-01-01
Resource Type
eISSN
17454999
Scopus ID
2-s2.0-105004583319
Journal Title
Research in Comparative and International Education
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SCOPUS
Bibliographic Citation
Research in Comparative and International Education (2025)
Suggested Citation
Arphattananon T. Space and physical environment as a hidden curriculum: Comparing schools in Thailand. Research in Comparative and International Education (2025). doi:10.1177/17454999251334866 Retrieved from: https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/123456789/110175
Title
Space and physical environment as a hidden curriculum: Comparing schools in Thailand
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Abstract
The study examines the physical environment of three different types of schools in Thailand: an inner-city school, a highly competitive school, and an alternative school. It investigates how these schools impart hidden curriculum to students and how this hidden curriculum perpetuates or challenges the prevailing ideology. Data was drawn from interviews with teachers, administrators, parents, and students, as well as observations of physical arrangements and school activities. The results demonstrate that the spatial configuration of the three schools, in conjunction with their pedagogical approaches and institutional cultures, had varying effects on students from different socioeconomic backgrounds and might have played a role in creating different and unequal future academic and career opportunities and pathways. However, the hidden curriculum of stringent regulation and hierarchical dominance has unintended consequences, resulting in transformations that question the inequitable power dynamics inside school.