Abstract:

The current educational landscape is characterized by complexity, uncertainty, and rapid technological transformations that call into question the mission of higher education institutions. In this context, knowledge can no longer be conceived as a merely transmissive and lecture-based process. Rather, the university should be understood as a space capable of integrating technological hybridity as a lived experience, where knowledge emerges through the interaction between subject, world, and others. This contribution explores a learning experience carried out at a german university within the context of foreign language education, in which Project Based Learning was adopted as a pedagogical device aimed at fostering student autonomy and agency. Through the development of an authentic task—the production of a television program—the learning activity moved beyond predefined instructional boundaries, transforming the classroom into an open environment characterized by negotiation, collaboration, and shared meaning-making. The research is grounded in a qualitative phenomenological-hermeneutic framework. Biographical interviews were conducted with the participating students in order to explore their lived experiences beyond predefined evaluative grids. The collected data were subjected to content analysis, leading to the identification of recurring phenomenological categories: experienced emotions, critical challenges, emerging needs, and perceived supportive factors. Findings show that overcoming initial disorientation and managing moments of impasse represented key turning points in the transformative process. Immersion in complexity fostered a reconfiguration of students’ self-perception—from passive recipients to active social agents capable of navigating uncertainty with resilience. The study highlights the importance of pedagogical approaches that value unpredictability and incidental learning, suggesting that project-based action can support the development of autonomous subjects capable of orienting themselves within the complexities of contemporary higher education.

Keywords:

Lived Experience, Transformative Learning, Higher Education, Phenomenological-Hermeneutic Research.