Beyond the Dress Code: Teaching the Hidden Curriculum Through Regulating Students’ Bodies

dc.contributor.advisorKwan, Samantha
dc.contributor.committeeMemberBrown, Jessica
dc.contributor.committeeMemberArney, Jennifer B.
dc.creatorChen, Yvonne
dc.date.accessioned2019-09-13T03:10:52Z
dc.date.available2019-09-13T03:10:52Z
dc.date.createdMay 2017
dc.date.issued2017-05
dc.date.submittedMay 2017
dc.date.updated2019-09-13T03:10:52Z
dc.description.abstractRecently, there have been a string of cases where students abide by the dress code yet school officials still deem them as dress code violators. To address this issue, I use theories on the hidden curriculum and cultural capital to examine how teachers enforce the dress code and what informs their decisions. Interviews with 19 teachers at two different high schools in a racially diverse school district revealed that teachers perform the roles of both the educator and the disciplinarian. However, their ability to regulate students are limited by the administration. Teachers rationalize their actions under the frameworks of respectability and professionalism. These frameworks draw upon dominant understandings of race, gender, class, sexuality, and embodiment. When teachers regulate students as a result of a dress code violation, female students and students of color are given lessons on respectability and professionalism. This study shows that teachers’ practices of regulation help reify the continuation of racial, gendered, and classed lines in high schools. Teachers adhere to anti-black middle class heteronormative values and attempt to instill those values in their students through the enforcement of said dress code. This is particularly harmful to marginalized groups in the educational system as these messages replicate androcentric, anti-black, middle class values.
dc.description.departmentSociology, Department of
dc.format.digitalOriginborn digital
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10657/4496
dc.language.isoeng
dc.rightsThe author of this work is the copyright owner. UH Libraries and the Texas Digital Library have their permission to store and provide access to this work. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of this work is prohibited except with permission of the author(s).
dc.subjectDress code
dc.subjectHidden curriculum
dc.subjectCultural Capital
dc.subjectTeachers
dc.titleBeyond the Dress Code: Teaching the Hidden Curriculum Through Regulating Students’ Bodies
dc.type.dcmiText
dc.type.genreThesis
thesis.degree.collegeCollege of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
thesis.degree.departmentSociology, Department of
thesis.degree.disciplineSociology
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Houston
thesis.degree.levelMasters
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Arts

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