Cultural capital, black holes, and the hidden curriculum: an analysis of grade repetition in Spain

In this article I explain the contradiction between the averagely high and equitable scores that Spanish students obtained in the last three editions (2015, 2018, and 2022) of the Program for International Student Assessment, and Spain's extremely high and unequitable rate of grade repetition in schools. After ruling out alternative explanations for this discrepancy, I explore the hypothesis that grade repetition in Spain is an effect of the hidden curriculum. Methodologically speaking, my explanation establishes analogies with Einstein's theory of relativity and draws on its spatial topoi to conceptualize the difference between the official and the hidden curriculum and the undemocratic conflation between upper- and middle-class cultural capital and academic skills. This conflation, I argue, lies behind said contradiction between Spanish students' scores in PISA and the rates of grade repetition in Spain.