Micro-credentials for integral education within an ethical, critical, and situated framework for Ibero-American higher education

Abstract

In the Ibero-American context, micro-credentials have expanded as a response to demands for employability, professional upskilling, and equity, but they entail risks of learning fragmentation, credential inflation, and instrumentalization of students. This article aims to propose an ethical, critical, and situated framework for the design of micro-credentials coherent with integral education and human dignity in higher education. Methodologically, it develops a theoretical–conceptual study based on a narrative review of the literature on micro-credentials, a hermeneutical selection of four philosophical frameworks—Plutarch, Kant, Byung-Chul Han, and Lawrence Kohlberg—and the pedagogical translation of their main normative categories. The analysis shows the convergence of these approaches around the centrality of virtue, dignity as an absolute value, the critique of the logic of performance, and moral maturation toward universal principles. As a result, the article proposes philosophical-pedagogical criteria to guide the design of micro-credentials that integrate ethical depth, attention to interiority, formative accompaniment, and a commitment to social justice, thereby avoiding micro-credentials that are reduced to superficial certifications subordinated exclusively to labor market logics.