Search results

This chapter highlights some of the problematic conceptions that underpin recognition of prior learning (RPL) practices. It argues 'that a view of knowledge inspired by complexity science challenges the conventional notions of 'prior learning', and opens possibilities for rethinking ways to 'recognise' it', critiquing RPL practices from a postmodernist, feminist philosophical perspective. Viewing learning through the lens of complexity science raises questions about the process of its recognition. Addressing these questions may be difficult within an institutional context where a commitment to champion adult students' experiential knowledge is what motivates those championing RPL, and the following suggestions are provided: emphasising learning as a process involving complex systems that unfold continuously; treating the representation of the co-emergent learning process as a fixed artefact that excludes much of the complex system being considered; and making explicit the problem of who and what is doing the 'recognising' and the politics of this recognition.