A Reflection on Eisner’s Three Curricula

My initial thought when hearing the word curriculum was simply the official document or syllabus, the explicit list of subjects, topics, and learning outcomes that schools advertise and set out to teach. However, Elliot Eisner’s article, "The Three Curricula That All Schools Teach," completely expands this view by demonstrating that schools teach far more, and far less, than their formal documents outline.

Reading Eisner provided three major stops that invited deep reflection:

• The Danger of Extrinsic Rewards: Eisner highlights research showing that relying on extrinsic rewards (like points or early lunch privileges) fosters compliance and turns students into "reward junkies," ultimately dampening their intrinsic interest when rewards are absent.
• Schedules Limit Deep Engagement: Rigid timetables and 50-minute blocks implicitly teach students "not to get too involved in what they do because to become too involved is to court frustration when time runs out".
• The Impact of the Null Curriculum: What schools omit, such as law, economics, the visual arts, or nonverbal, metaphoric modes of thought, actively biases student perspectives and limits the options and criteria used to evaluate human intelligence.

Eisner expands our understanding of curriculum by dividing it into three distinct dimensions: the explicit curriculum (the advertised, formal subjects), the implicit curriculum (the unstated social values, habits, and compliance taught through school culture and structure), and the null curriculum (the options, subjects, and intellectual processes that are left out).

This framework directly connects to mandated provincial frameworks like the BC Curriculum. A mandated provincial document represents the primary explicit curriculum, the public learning outcomes we are accountable for teaching. However, how we deliver that document in the classroom creates an implicit curriculum; if math is taught strictly through rigid schedules, speed drills, and normative grading, students implicitly learn compliance and competition alongside math concepts. Finally, examining what the mandated provincial framework emphasizes,or omits, reveals its null curriculum, reminding us to reflect on whether nonverbal problem-solving, spatial reasoning, or real-world application are being left out. Recognizing all three dimensions allows us to be far more intentional as educators.