Entre calificación y aprendizaje: sentidos de la evaluación en educación superior

The assessment of learning in higher education is often analyzed from technical and normative perspectives, neglecting its experiential, ethical, and social dimensions. This study aims to interpret, from a narrative perspective, how assessment practices are experienced and given meaning by higher education students, identifying the formative and hidden meanings that emerge in their relationships and their connection to emotional experiences and perceptions of fairness within the lived curriculum. The research was conducted using a qualitative approach, with a narrative design, based on the inductive analysis of 69 written narratives produced within the framework of an Educational Assessment course at a public institution. The results reveal a tension between the formative approaches promoted in pedagogical discourse and the evaluative practices that predominate in everyday experience. Summative and traditional assessments are associated with emotions such as anxiety, fear, and stress, as well as with perceptions of arbitrariness and misalignment between teaching and assessment. In contrast, formative practices are valued for their clarity, coherence, and potential to foster learning, participation, and the application of knowledge. Furthermore, meanings linked to justice and power are identified, showing how assessment can operate both as a mechanism for regulating learning and as a device that reproduces inequalities. It is concluded that assessment constitutes a central element of the hidden curriculum and raises the need to rethink it as an ethical practice oriented toward a more equitable education in higher education.