The Hidden Curriculum in Children’s Literature: The Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

With the appearance of Rowling’s Harry Potter series and their incredible success in the children’s world of fiction, various academic readings and analyses of the novels have been made in the last decade. As children’s literature contains messages both implicitly and explicitly about social constructions and institutions, there will be tacit teachings on the schooling and learning styles, too, which in the long run can affect the students and even would-be teachers. With reference to previous studies, this essay is intended mainly to analyze the merits and demerits of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a school created by Rowling’s word magic. Various effective and ineffective teaching practices are mentioned; and different aspects of learning and assessment and their values at the Hogwarts are criticized. Within this educational context, there will be implications for readers of all types: students, parents, teachers, educators and policy makers. Rowling has managed to splendidly portray the role of all participants. Mental and physical training; transfer of one’s learning to the real world; peer interaction as a source of learning; a socially motivating competition; leadership; cooperative learning and problem solving situations are some of the issues traceable in these novels. A further implication would be for educators to raise the children’s consciousness about these values.