Scaffolding the Inner Curriculum: Supporting Students’ Capacity to Engage Complexity, Uncertainty, and Societal Challenges in Higher Education

Preparing students for an increasingly uncertain and complex world has become one of higher education’s defining challenges. Successfully engaging with complex issues requires more than disciplinary knowledge; it also demands the capacity to navigate uncertainty, multiple perspectives, and emotionally challenging realities. However, relatively little is known about how these capacities are experienced during the early undergraduate years. This exploratory qualitative study examined how first- and second-year undergraduate students described their approaches to learning about, processing, and engaging with difficult issues within a sustainability-focused program. Open-ended question responses were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis, followed by a cross-cohort comparison. Four dimensions of engagement emerged: how students approached difficult realities, processed challenging information, learned through dialogue and multiple perspectives, and connected their learning to possible action. While both cohorts expressed a willingness to engage with difficult issues, first-year students emphasized emotional preparation and structured support, whereas second-year students highlighted dialogue, reflection, multiple perspectives, and agency. The findings reveal different patterns of engagement across the two cohorts and point to the importance of intentionally supporting the inner curriculum—the developmental capacities that enable students to engage complexity, uncertainty, and social change throughout higher education, thereby strengthening universities’ capacity to contribute to long-term social change.