The hidden curriculum in environmental education: mobility represented in EFL coursebooks and examination materials

While there is growing demand that schools should educate students to be environmentally conscious citizens, the covert messages the texts in some educational materials convey may run counter to this expectation. The article discusses the findings of research conducted to evaluate the covert content of three advanced-level EFL coursebooks and twelve sets of secondary school-leaving examination materials used in Hungarian secondary schools for their suitability for environmental education. Mobility was selected for investigation for its particularly strong environmental impact. In an attempt to explore the hidden curriculum of educational materials, the research employs quantitative, content-analytical methods, comparing the frequencies of different forms of mobility occurring in the materials, and comparing these to real-life patterns of mobility. The findings indicate that environmentally harmful forms of mobility, such as driving and flying, are heavily overrepresented in the EFL coursebooks investigated, and partially in the examination materials, in sharp contrast with the aims of environmental education.