Researching the Recognition of Prior Learning: International Perspectives

A rapidly developing approach around the world, the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) is the practice of acknowledging the knowledge and skills that people have acquired formally, non-formally and informally - through work and life experience, training programmes, community activities as well as through unaccredited periods of formal learning. It is used in post-secondary education and training contexts for admissions and/or advanced standing, as well as in workforce development and for occupational and professional certification. Since the mid-1990s, many governments around the world have closely linked RPL with national qualification frameworks and lifelong learning policies. This volume is an authoritative, up-to-date overview of international research practice in RPL aimed at researchers, policy-makers, postgraduate students and practitioners in education and other professional fields, especially those concerned with access, widening participation and work-based learning. It provides a comprehensive account of current research in the UK, Canada, Sweden, Australia, South Africa, the USA and other EU and OECD countries. Scholars from each country or jurisdiction were invited to address key questions: Who is doing research? How are they doing it, and why? What questions are being asked? Designed to consolidate international approaches and identify research gaps, possibilities and emerging questions to support the development of innovative research and scholarship into the theory and practice of RPL over the next decade, this book lays the groundwork for the development of RPL as a community of scholarship.

Table of Contents:
Foreword (Judith Murray); Information about the authors; 1. Introduction and overview of chapters (Judy Harris and Christine Wihak); 2. Australia: An overview of 20 years of RPL research (Roslyn Cameron); 3. Canada: A typology of PLAR research in context (Joy Van Kleef); 4. Quebec: An overview of RAC/RPLC research since 2002 (Rachel Belisle); 5. England: APEL research in higher education (Helen Pokorny); 6. European Union: VNFIL research and system building (Judy Harris); 7. Research reveals 'islands of good practice' in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries (Patrick Werquin and Christine Wihak); 8. Scotland: RPL research within a national credit and qualifications framework (Ruth Whittaker); 9. South Africa: Research reflecting critically on RPL research and practice (Mignonne Breier); 10. Sweden: The developing field of validation research (Per Andersson and Andreas Fejes); 11. United States of America: PLA research in colleges and universities (Nan Travers); 12. PLAR and the teaching-research nexus in universities (Angelina Wong); 13. Research into PLAR in university adult education programmes in Canada (Christine Wihak and Angelina Wong); Endword: Reflections on research for an emergent field (Norm Friesen)

About the Author :
Judy Harris is Adjunct Professor at Thompson Rivers University (TRU), British Columbia, Canada, and was the first Visiting Scholar to be hosted by the Open Learning division of TRU in 2010. Her research interests include the curricular and pedagogic implications of the recognition of prior learning (RPL), work-based learning and widening participation in higher education. Mignonne Breier is in the Research Office at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, where she manages university-wide research development programmes. She was previously a Researcher at the Human Sciences Research Council and the Centre for the Study of Higher Education at the University of the Western Cape. Her research straddles informal learning, higher education, professional education and student dropout, but recognition of prior learning has been a key theme. Christine Wihak is the Director of Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR), at Thompson Rivers University British Columbia, Canada. She is responsible for a PLAR department that serves the university's on-campus and distance education students. She is founder and Director of the Prior Learning International Research Centre (PLIRC) and has taken a leadership role in developing Canadian and international communities of scholarship in PLAR. Her personal research interest is cross-cultural issues in PLAR in higher education.