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Legislative framework for implementing recognition of prior learning
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify and highlight the key constructs of an enabling policy environment and their probable impact on development and implementation of recognition of prior learning (RPL) process in higher education and training in South Africa with reference to library and information science (LIS) field.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopted quantitative methods, and utilised questionnaires and document analysis to collect data. The study used a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to collect data from all the ten LIS schools in the South African higher education and training landscape. The questionnaire was used as the main data collection tool to collect quantitative data through a survey research design. In addition, the researcher employed content analysis to analyse qualitative data collected from institutional RPL policy documents.
Findings
The study found that the LIS schools have aligned most of their institutional RPL policies and procedures with South African Qualifications Authority’s national RPL policy (2013). However, in terms of the institutional RPL policy environment, the study found that there was a low level of compliance regarding certain aspects of the policy environment among LIS schools despite their express explicit commitment to the principles of equity of access and redress.
Research limitations/implications
In-depth interviews were not conducted to ascertain the reasons for low level of compliance regarding certain aspects of the RPL policy.
Practical implications
This study is valuable for higher education institutions, policy and governance, government and other stakeholders to assess the level of compliance to legislative and regulatory framework in RPL implementation in higher education and training in South Africa. In addition, the study was important for LIS schools in particular as RPL can be used as a tool to open access and increase participation in learning programmes to counteract low level of student enrolments in this field.
Originality/value
There is very little published concerning compliance to legislative framework RPL implementation in higher education and training. Furthermore, most published work relate to RPL implementation in higher education and training in general. The paper describes compliance to legislative framework to RPL implementation in higher education and training in South Africa with special reference to LIS field.
Prior learning assessment (PLA) uses testing or competency portfolios to assess and grant credit for college-level learning, thus offering personal and professional empowerment to adult learners. The purpose of this review was to systematically examine global academic literature related to PLA over a decade. An earlier review of U.S. literature focused solely on PLA, but this review focused on the globally used term recognition of prior learning (RPL) and prior learning assessment and recognition (PLAR). Data collection followed a structured process to identify all peer-reviewed journal articles published over a decade that meet inclusion criteria. Data analysis included thematic coding to identify categories leading to themes. Major findings included journals publishing about PLA, author perspectives and affiliations, underlying empirical studies, and eight major themes: studies of programs, policy and systems, studies of PLA, technology tools, theory building, assessment practices, workplace applications of PLA, and immigration.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the status, trends and challenges of library and information education and training in Eastern and Southern Africa. It notes that library and information education and training in Africa is undergoing rapid change, with difficult challenges to be overcome. For example, during the past 20 years, the number of library schools has grown in some regions and declined in some, such as South Africa. Common LIS factors include amalgamation, re‐orientation, and curriculum review and revision.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors' extensive experience with and exposure to LIS education has been used together with observations and literature survey in the field to inform this paper.
Findings
It is evident that LIS schools have, to a greater or lesser extent, been redesigning their curricula to keep track of the latest developments in the information world and keep their teaching market‐related. New qualification programmes have been developed to provide opportunities for further specialization. In many cases departments have changed their names to reflect these new focus areas and extensions, and in many cases departments have realigned themselves within their universities. It is evident that LIS schools have taken the challenges of the changing information environment very seriously, and have adapted their curricula, their names and their institutional alignments to reflect these changes.
Research limitations/implications
The paper raises fundamental issues concerning trends, challenges and opportunities for LIS education and training in eastern and southern Africa by largely drawing examples from the authors' experience and related African studies in the domain.
Practical implications
The paper provides useful current information to inform LIS educators, researchers, students and other stakeholders on the issues and challenges of LIS education in the region.
Originality/value
Information provided in this paper is of value for comparative studies on LIS education and training. The paper is current and largely informed by participant observation, participation and experiential knowledge that is fresh and well informed.
This research is an attempt to determine the extent to which the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) in higher education promotes social transformation. Through analysing the case study of the University of the Western Cape (UWC) RPL programme, some conclusions on this matter were drawn. This research, a qualitative study, analyses key official documents, institutional reports, learning portfolios - produced by RPL candidates wherin they narrated their autobiographical learning histories - extensively. In addition, qualitative data were incorporated into this study to assist in the construction of the context within which RPL is being offered ...
This paper examines the extent to which the South African Library and Information Science (LIS) agenda maps to the national agenda for the reconstruction and development of the country, which is geared to the elimination of poverty and inequality. The nation has been described as comprising two societies: the one modern and well developed, the other characterised by masses of people living in dire poverty. The mandate of LIS in South Africa includes supporting and stimulating the technological and information development of all communities and providing effective LIS education to meet this goal. The government has embraced the concept of the Information Society, emphasising the link between economic growth and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and has pointed to the need for information literacy education. We present a critique of the fit between LIS policies and practices (including the curriculum) and the needs of an emerging democracy and its development goals, challenged by the duality of globalisation and marginalisation.
The higher education sector faces many daunting challenges. It is clear that the ability and capacity of institutions to deal successfully with current policy goals and initiatives and changing conditions is uneven, and is partly shaped by historical conditions. Higher education also faces the excitement of mapping the direction to social redress and transformation while at the same time attempting to meet the skills requirement of the country. The entry of Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) into higher education at this particular juncture in our transition cannot underscore its significance to the adult learner, the workplace and the country. If South Africa is to play and occupy a leading role in Africa and the globe, the higher education sector has that challenge by adopting a vigorous RPL policy. The real challenge is to provide access for people whose academic or career paths have been needlessly blocked, as their prior learning was previously not recognised, assessed, accredited nor certified.
This article argues that we can use the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) to reconceptualise the project of bridging the articulation gap between further and higher education in South Africa by framing the cognitive praxis of this project simultaneously within the African Renaissance and within a progressive global project of lifelong learning. The article then suggests that RPL requires recognising both the complementarity and the contestation or disjunction between different modes of learning and knowledge production. In a post-modern period of intensified globalisation that inevitably shapes what is possible in lifelong learning and the African Renaissance, it may be useful to frame ";bridging the gap"; within a broader notion of ";mediating difference";. The article uses our experience of introducing RPL at the University of the Western Cape to illustrate the general argument.
(South African Journal of Higher Education: 2003 17 (1): 47-53)
The concept of RPL tantalises the South African economy with its inherent promise to allow working adults from all walks of life the means to acquire a formal qualification without returning to a traditional classroom. The promise is clear -RPL is a tool that can lead to the transformation of a society like South Africa because work experience can equal a qualification; and having a qualification will mean improved career prospects, better opportunities and ultimately greater earning potential. But the reality is far removed from the promise. RPL is not widely available to working adults, and vast amounts of money and time are spent each year to train working adults to gain qualifications in the very disciplines they have been working in for years. This paper summarises research which demonstrates that one of the main reasons for this widespread rejection of RPL in favour of traditional classroom training is simply that the RPL models available do not cater for the needs of the working adult in a typical working environment. This research proposes a logic model to guide RPL implementation in the insurance workplace.
Cet article presente les resultats d'un inventaire europeen evaluant politiques et pratiques dans les Etats membres et la Norvege dans le cadre de la validation de l'apprentissage formel, non formel et informel. Le contexte etudie est la cooperation croissante entre les Etats de l'Union Europeenne afin de convenir de mecanismes permettant d'ameliorer la transparence des qualifications professionnelles entre les pays et d'evaluer les mecanismes actuels de validation de l'apprentissage formel, non formel et informel dans les differents systemes nationaux dans la perspective d'un developpement des strategies d'education permanente.
This paper examines the response of a blackuniversity in South Africa to the challengesposed by the mode 2 knowledge thesis of MichaelGibbon. The case material is based on theFaculty of Engineering at the University ofDurban Westville, which in the period 1999–2000grappled with the implications of Gibbonsthesis for knowledge, inquiry and professionalidentity in a proposed university-industrypartnership. The author argues that entrenchedinstitutional rules and behaviours threaten toundermine any attempt to rethink the researchand practice of engineering education even whensuch restructuring appears to work in the bestinterest of students.
This paper examines the extent to which the South African Library and Information Science (LIS) agenda maps to the national agenda for the reconstruction and development of the country, which is geared to the elimination of poverty and inequality. The nation has been described as comprising two societies: the one modern and well developed, the other characterised by masses of people living in dire poverty. The mandate of LIS in South Africa includes supporting and stimulating the technological and information development of all communities and providing effective LIS education to meet this goal. The government has embraced the concept of the Information Society, emphasising the link between economic growth and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and has pointed to the need for information literacy education. We present a critique of the fit between LIS policies and practices (including the curriculum) and the needs of an emerging democracy and its development goals, challenged by the duality of globalisation and marginalisation.
A report on recognition of prior learning (RPL) policy and practice in Australia
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- N Dennis
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- P Miller
- D Newton
- S Pascoe
- R Brightman
Coping with changes in higher education in South Africa
- R Du Pre
Lifelong learning policy and RPL in the learning society: the promise of Faure?
- R Duvekot
Whose learning? Whose knowledge? Recognition of prior learning and the National Qualifications Framework
- M Breier
The demand for the skills and the education and training currently provided by higher education institutions for librarians, archivists, records managers and other information specialists”, Department of Arts and Culture and National Council for Library and Information Services
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The Recognition of Prior Learning, Poverty, Pedagogy and Possibility
- J Harris
Canada: a typology of prior learning assessment and recognition research in context
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Different faces and functions of RPL: an assessment perspective
- P Andersson