LAUSR

Abstract In my second year teaching at the elementary level, two biracial first graders told a Black child that she could not play because her skin was too dark. I found myself, a white female teacher, using the language of the bullying prevention programme to ignore the racialized nature of the incident and ultimately enact a hidden curriculum of white supremacy. In this article, I analyze the incident using the concept of hidden curriculum and a critical whiteness studies lens in order to better understand how formal social curricula, such as bullying prevention programmes, might be used to promote harmful social norms in a covert manner. I posit that explicit social curricula grounded in behaviourist theory are especially problematic because they are designed to elicit standardized rather than contextualized responses to problematic student behaviours. I explore the ways I utilized colour evasiveness and taught it to my students through the hidden curriculum and the bullying prevention programme. I conclude with implications for the implementation of formal social curricula in schools and considerations for teacher education to break white discourse norms that contribute to the hegemonic hidden curriculum.