Dealing with the Intangible: Using the Analytical Lens of Hidden Curricula for a Transformative Paradigm of Sustainable Higher Education

Abstract

There is a broad consensus that universities have the potential to act as drivers of education for sustainable development (ESD) and constitute fundamental vehicles to explore, test, develop and communicate conditions for necessary socio-ecological transformations. This goes hand in hand with stronger acknowledgment of the societal role of universities and the related need for a new transformative paradigm of sustainable higher education. Before such a paradigm can be established, before higher education can be transformative, universities themselves must be transformed. Despite various pioneer projects and frontrunners of sustainable universities, real transformations are still rare though.

Unpacking the Hidden Curricula in Educational Automation: A Methodology for Ethical Praxis

“…Much work has been done on interrogating hidden curricula in 'traditional' teaching situations. Rammel and Vettori (2021) use hidden curricula to frame the 'latent' social and cultural aspects that underpin all teaching and learning efforts, structures, and processes and note their often desultory impact on institutional transformation. Cotton et al (2013) note that this latency is at least partly a result of less densely codified formal curricula, which provides a context where multiple hidden curricula exist.…”

The contribution of a hermeneutic approach to investigate psychological variables in second language acquisition

“…The social hermeneutic approach helps to understand the growth of controversial issues, socially oriented discourses embedded in socially complicated spheres which include a wide array of participants and various points of view such as an educational setting (Vettori, 2018). It helps to investigate the integration of well-established educational plans in wider historical and social settings (e.g., investigating the informal and formal needs of students with various backgrounds to satisfy while learning something, and unraveling the strategies that result from meeting these needs; or evaluating the prerequisites for change in relation to official educational and academic norms (Rammel and Vettori, 2021). It helps to change the basic values, assumptions and norms which represent themselves in instructional settings, learning designs and technologies.…”

“…Shklar, 2004), two basic principles are established by the hermeneutic circle which still may be considered the main features of social hermeneutics too. The first point is the need for the interpreter to constantly doubt his/her present interpretation condition, and should doubtingly investigate each strand of analysis (Rammel and Vettori, 2021). The second point is that to make sense of the text, one cannot just rely on the text itself.…”

“…Yet, each has somehow moved in a different direction away from the fundamental model of interpretation. Modern approaches to social hermeneutics move away from attempts to make sense of a text by fluctuating between the whole text and the different constituent elements it is comprised of (Rammel and Vettori, 2021). The modern varieties typically begin with the deconstruction (another distinctive feature of this approach) of the source text.…”

“…A modern hermeneutic approach to SLA Whereas classic hermeneutics mostly dealt with interpreting philosophical or literary texts, modern hermeneutics turns the focus of interpretation to the non-verbal and verbal aspects of communication too as presuppositions, pre-understanding and semiotics (Rammel and Vettori, 2021). Modern hermeneutical approach can be coupled with the acquisition of four language skills including reading, writing, listening and speaking, to improve language learners' comprehensive and interpretative outlooks (Seth, 2020).…”