Materials as non-human agents in the hidden doctoral curriculum

The hidden curriculum in doctoral education emphasises the informal learning opportunities accessible to doctoral researchers outside traditional academic settings, which can enhance their development as researchers. These opportunities are numerous and include conversations with counsellors, peers, or community members on various topics that can directly or indirectly influence researchers’ growth and performance. This pedagogy recognises the importance of different agents who can support, empower, and enable doctoral researchers to create effective learning pathways (Elliot et al., 2020). In this discussion, we propose that materials, as non-human objects, are one of these hidden curriculum agents. By ‘non-human agents’, we refer to physical or digital artefacts that, while not sentient, actively shape doctoral learning experiences through their design, use, and social embedding. They can facilitate learning beyond academic contexts, stimulate personal engagement, and mediate interactions with other hidden curriculum human agents.