More Personal Knowledge for More Sustainable Higher Education

Abstract

Abstract The article aims at considering the characteristics of the Anthropocene era from a broader perspective and emhasizing the possibilities of pedagogy to reduce the current unsustain-ability of higher education. The relationships between human and nature are affected by the wicked problems. In particular, they are influenced by intermingling of anthropocentrism, egocentrism and egoism, which affect these relationships by causing changes in the human being, i.e., changes in sensitivity and sensibility occur that are naturally necessary for human adaptation to the environment. For the case study, we have used the processes taking place at the phenomenon level, which are known as the first-person perspective (1PP) characterized by an active and dynamic connection with the environment. It should be noted that 1PP cannot be observed from a distance, as there are a number of interrelated processes that begin with the effects of the environment, the formation of the “self” and the formation of the self-image. It follows that complex consciousness in the 1PP is implemented within an egocentric reference system, where experience is structured according to the image of the human body. The article will present the findings of 1PP study obtained by performing two tasks: (1) development of a personally significant view of a 1PP researcher on the phenomenon of sustainability from an egocentric perspective and (2) involvement of the 1PP researcher in adaptive learning suitable for pandemic conditions. We would like to stress that the case study has been developed as our reaction to the intensification of unsustainable development in the relationship between nature and human, which has been initiated and maintained by the tangle of Anthropocene problems. From the pedagogical perspective, we looked for an opportunity to use the basis of the natural origin of human and nature relations to maintain more integrated activities and more personal knowledge, so that the development of more sustainable higher education could be promoted by means of personal experience. Through the pedagogical lenses of phenomenology, we identified the need to reduce the impact of the Anthropocene tangle through the use of more natural methods. We also recognized the need to use the 1PP and adaptive learning opportunities more carefully. In this way, pedagogy can gain new experiences for a more holistic understanding of individual experience and enhance the use of the unique abilities of adaptive learning to prototype more personal knowledge in order to build more sustainable higher education.