A Conceptual Analysis of the Hidden Curriculum of Police Training in England and Wales

Abstract

This article examines the philosophical principles underlying police training in England and Wales. An explanation for the documented lack of progress in changing police culture is proposed. It is suggested the current vogue for “National Standards” and “Competence Frameworks” is based on a discredited technical rationality that models human systems using “machine” metaphors. Such approaches are intellectually impoverished in relation to both educational thought and the wider history of ideas. They permit a dislocation of training methods from the purposes of policing and support unhelpful binaries such as theory/practice and fact/value. The unintended consequences or “hidden curriculum” of this approach to police training reinforces traditional cultural prejudices and inhibits major change programmes (e.g., problem-solving, diversity, community-focus). It is concluded that progress demands the development of an ethical foundation for a policing practice rather than a technical one, and that police managers must learn to collaborate with others in constructing cultural understanding.

Keywords:

• Police culture
• Police training
• Curriculum
• Hidden curriculum
• Ethics
• Practice

Notes

1. The Secret Policeman was a BBC documentary screened in October 2003. An undercover reporter joined the police service and underwent the initial course. He secretly filmed a number of officers expressing racist views.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David White

David White is with the School of Education and Professional Training at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK