Hidden Pedagogical Entanglements: A Depth Hermeneutic Study of Intercultural Dynamics
type: CreativeWork
description: This is a depth hermeneutic study of intercultural dynamics that advocates for educators to move away from a binary view of life as static and fixed. In this static view of the world, educators consciously and unconsciously transmit to students that life and humanity are problems to be fixed. Locating psyche as alive within an animated worldview (interdependent, dynamic, unfolding, and acting upon us) would allow us to see and live otherwise. From this position, I explore the significance of unseen classroom dynamics between teachers and students through myth, ancestors, dream, memory, and image. Composed and expressed as a separate and a collective whole, I braid key concepts, images, and ideas through a collection of essays. Using curriculum studies, hermeneutics, Jungian, and post-Jungian psychology, I seek to uncover layers of the hidden yet felt interplay between psyche, culture, and the ways the unconscious (personal, collective, cultural) manifests in unseen teaching-and-learning spaces. Woven within the essays, I share my unfolding processes as a pedagogic being through personal analytic work. This engagement demonstrates the way inner work and complexes unearth shadow aspects that can provide healing for fragmented ways of being and doing in the classroom. This question guides the study in its entirety: In what ways might bringing depth psychology and curriculum studies together address “the problem with the kids,” or unseen dynamics in the classroom?
abstract: This is a depth hermeneutic study of intercultural dynamics that advocates for educators to move away from a binary view of life as static and fixed. In this static view of the world, educators consciously and unconsciously transmit to students that life and humanity are problems to be fixed. Locating psyche as alive within an animated worldview (interdependent, dynamic, unfolding, and acting upon us) would allow us to see and live otherwise. From this position, I explore the significance of unseen classroom dynamics between teachers and students through myth, ancestors, dream, memory, and image. Composed and expressed as a separate and a collective whole, I braid key concepts, images, and ideas through a collection of essays. Using curriculum studies, hermeneutics, Jungian, and post-Jungian psychology, I seek to uncover layers of the hidden yet felt interplay between psyche, culture, and the ways the unconscious (personal, collective, cultural) manifests in unseen teaching-and-learning spaces. Woven within the essays, I share my unfolding processes as a pedagogic being through personal analytic work. This engagement demonstrates the way inner work and complexes unearth shadow aspects that can provide healing for fragmented ways of being and doing in the classroom. This question guides the study in its entirety: In what ways might bringing depth psychology and curriculum studies together address “the problem with the kids,” or unseen dynamics in the classroom?
author: Otero, Petra
keywords: Pedagogy, Curriculum studies, hermeneutics, depth psychology, Jungian psychology, intercultural dynamics, psyche, Curriculum and Social Inquiry
date published: 2021-09-01T07:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T03:21:12Z
provider: National-Louis University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: National-Louis University