Rosanna Barros

The Portuguese case of RPL new practices and new adult educators: some tensions and ambivalences in the framework of new public policies

This article reports the main contributions of an original empirical research project whose primary objective was to understand some of the complexities of Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) practices in general and those referring to the Portuguese RPL case in particular. The main purpose of this study was to reflect critically upon the contemporary RPL practices and policies. Of particular relevance was the discussion of some aspects of (i) the form and mission of RPL as well as some aspects of (ii) the role and profile of RPL adult educators. These concerns were taken within the framework of a new adult education and training (AET) strategy and the ‘new educational order’, originating in late modernity. The four models used to capture ways of seeing RPL practices, proposed by Judy Harris, were theoretically revisited (as heuristic devices). However, this was assumed only as one possible route to better problematise the empirical findings. The results allow us to establish, for instance, that the need for outcomes with regards to the number of adults certified became progressively more important in the Portuguese case; that these practices tended to view learning as a cognitive process instead of a reality embedded in social practice; that this RPL was more about individual advancement than about collective advancement; or even that this RPL structure can be seen as a strategic device whose social purpose was more about constructing a new invisible form of exclusion than an innovative way of inclusion.

A nova política pública de educação e formação de adultos em Portugal. Os educadores de adultos numa encruzilhada

A brief analysis of the new adult education public policy adopted in Portugal after 1999 is made in this article. This discussion is based on elements which have an educational and political nature, more specifically, on the professional profiles of adult educators, according to three public educational policy models. This article discusses empirical data collected in two research projects, by means of semi-structured and open interviews, as well as direct observation of the work carried out by adult educators in their workplaces. These data were the object of content analysis. Final considerations stress the tensions inherent to the work conducted by these practitioners.

Reflexões epistemológicas sobre o potencial emancipador da pedagogia da libertação para superar o modelo escolar no quefazer do(a) professor(a)

Since 19th century the national education systems have been consolidating as a specific educational model, developed on the institutional and organizational school context, and therefore designated broadly as formal education. The hegemonic characteristics of this model have been naturalized their educational assumptions and they have been accepted now in the West scholar as the educational classic normative integration model based into an educational arrangement practice which hallmark is totalitarian and prescriptive. Thus, this paper shares the main recent criticisms of this classic scholar education model. In addition to, this work also envisages hope on the new theoretical proposals present in the critical perspectives of educational thought, raising reflections that go beyond philosophy, policy and anthropology fields of knowledge, and offering support to educational research and educators training.