Administración General de la Comunidad Autónoma

The RNFIL Report (Werquin, 2010) confirms that both the status and the legitimacy society attributes to acquisition of awards in the formal system is important. The RNFIL Report acknowledges this as a common phenomenon in many of the OECD countries where the

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achievement of higher education awards brings status and specialist knowledge (p.31). RPL supports individuals to accomplish formal education awards and therefore contributes to status and credential acquisition. However, the role of RPL in accruing credits goes largely unnoticed and unacknowledged unless it for a full award. RPL is currently outside the status sphere and consequently awards that include it are not attractive for many individuals.

The French enquiry points out that motivation for learning there is constructed within a hierarchical qualification framework, which in turn perpetuates a status-oriented motivation for awards. The move to Frameworks of Qualifications that offer a ladder of awards actively promotes a hierarchical culture which, in turn, is named by Pouget as one of the motivating forces in France for RPL. She illustrates this by quoting one RPL candidate:

Diplomas are … so important in France! You can have all the competences, but if you haven’t got a diploma ... There is a different weight given in the professional hierarchy ... according to which school [they come from], they get more responsibility ... In France much is made of your title ... (2011:187).

Pouget further suggests that “VAE could only have been born in France; a country where having a diploma does make all the difference” (2011:217). Part of the value of VAE in France is clearly the promise of status from obtaining a higher award.

In France, according to Pouget (2011), status is important and the primary indicators of professional competency are the level of qualifications held by individuals. She cites Suzanne Cirton (2008) who calls it ‘élitisme républicain’ the “collective unconscious which considers French society as a ladder to climb” (cited in Pouget, 2011:185). Pouget goes on to state that the French attitude to status is also critiqued by Bourdieu (1989) when he states that “the weight of social capital in the reproduction of a (republican) elite [comes] through the school system, notably through the elite schools (grandes écoles) from where most politicians or high-ranking civil servants emanate’ (cited in Pouget, 2011: 185-186). This is so in many western societies. However, there is also the growing regulation of many professions and thus credentials are a growing concern for many workers who may not be able to keep their jobs if they do not have the required qualifications. Credentials may be important as a sign of status but in today’s job market they may also be necessary for job security.

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3.13 Summary

The complications and paradoxes embedded in RPL are many. In the construction of RPL little consideration was given to the relationship between practice and theory, and the focus on practice was at the cost of theory. In this context RPL has run riot, finding its way into many different learning domains but with no clear idea about its purpose. It has undergone layers of deterritorialising processes that have separated it from its roots in adult experiential learning to a position where it has become a feature of a market driven education for work.

The first point for deterritorialisation was the policy domain and the second point was the definitions phase. In the defining process RPL was subordinated in the education species and thus has to seek approval from academic judges to gain status in education.

The next point is a deterritorialisation of experience into the labour market where it is valued unquestioningly. An image is created by Canadian researchers (CBC) that depicts it as both deeper and wider albeit not higher than formal learning. Research clearly shows that RPL is valued by employers and students for its economic benefits and it is a very important mechanism in Canada for building a sustainable and flexible workforce.

In contrast with this effect of RPL, accounts from claimants in France tell a contradictory story of the struggle for recognition. The reflective modes offered by Kolb lead to an organization and ordering of learning from experience that fits with RPL. According to Michelson, this forces a super-abundance of self-discipline and control and effects a deterritorialisation of the self in the process.

Assessors too struggle with recognition processes and see little connection between teacher taught and self-taught learning. The validity of assessment and quality assurance matters are thus in question.

RPL and formal learning are embraced in an epistemological clash as differences between both mount up. Conceptualizations fall short as old battle grounds between experiential learning and formal learning become ever more salient. Attempts to collapse them by explaining knowledge in terms of horizontal and vertical types is brave but paradoxical as one piece of research in Ireland contradicts the findings from the other in France.

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The aspiration of the European Council Recommendations (2012) that RPL will promote access and widen participation is dubious. Evidence from South Africa suggests that redressing the effects of exclusion is an uphill struggle, and that RPL can only ever be one small part of the response to the problems of inequality in education.

Nonetheless, there is hope. Research from the US shows some extraordinary benefits for students who successfully complete RPL. They stay longer in their courses, are better at problem posing and finish quicker than their counterparts. Other research indicates some excellent intrinsic benefits for building confidence and self-worth. Models of RPL that are integrated into adult learning appear to have good outcomes for disadvantaged groups as RPL is reterritorialized to ‘rpl’ again in a UK study.

Deleuzian thought brings the beginnings of some new ways of conceptualizing the effects of human experience to individual knowings. The concept of the ‘fold’ is introduced as an image of how experience is enfolded and unfolded in learning and how all are affected by thought – a dimension of learning excluded in RPL.

Overall, the task of reconceptualising RPL is perplexing. In the following chapters, I will try to create modes of practice and thought that offer a different conceptualization of RPL for learning.

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A BRIDGE