"Growth Mindset" as a Hidden Curriculum for the Gig Economy

This article examines the pervasive discourse of "growth mindset” within higher education, proposing that it functions as a powerful hidden curriculum at the College of Social Sciences and Humanities at Addis Ababa Science and Technology University (AASTU). While presented as a psychological tool for empowering students, this curriculum may be socializing them with the ideal dispositions for navigating the precarious and demanding 21st-century labor market, particularly the burgeoning tech and gig economy in Ethiopia. Based on a proposed qualitative analysis of course syllabi and interviews with lecturers and students, this article explores how an emphasis on resilience, “productive failure," and radical personal responsibility prepares students to accept instability and constant self-optimization as natural and necessary. The analysis suggests that the growth mindset curriculum fosters three key themes: the glorification of persistence over structural support, the individualization of systemic barriers, and the normalization of continuous adaptation. The article draws parallels between this framework and the historical function of hidden curricula in producing compliant workers for different economic eras. It concludes that while the intentions behind instilling a growth mindset are often positive, its application in this university setting risks operating as a socially conservative force that aligns student psychology with the demands of a neoliberal economy, thereby discouraging critical examination of the systemic causes of inequality and precarity.