On the opening of higher education institutions to new publics: the portuguese case

• Autor(a) principal: Amorim, José Pedro
• Data de Publicação: 2010
• Outros Autores: Azevedo, Joaquim, Coimbra, Joaquim Luís
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/4622
• topic: Higher education; Mature students; Adult learners; Adult students; Non-traditional students; Recognition and validation of competences; Recognition of prior learning; Accreditation of prior experiential learning

The recent “opening” of higher education institutions (HEI) to “new publics” raises some questions: fi rst of all, that of the transformation (or not) of an education subsystem often described as conservative. The unsolved problem of the lack of devices directed to the recognition of adults’ prior learning (at a higher education level) might work as a challenge that could contribute to solve this problem, that is, the knowledge (often unrecognised by the subjects themselves, but also by others, namely through formal devices of recognition) acquired and developed by adults, in their lives and with their lives, together with the needs that they seek to satisfy through education and training, could invite HEI to change. This paper intends to explore part of the wide range of meanings that adults construct concerning higher education, stressing the obstacles and facilitators of adult learning, in a journey through three spheres: individual, social and institutional. The research plan presented here intends to draw a conceptual and critical framework of the problematic, based on the perspectives of HEI directors, professors and adult learners. Even though the study privileges the local level, both concerning the institutions and the individuals, the national and transnational governance devices and processes have been considered as well. The analytic dimensions embrace the processes and products of adult learning, the assessment methodologies, the pedagogical practices, the curricular plans and frameworks, the (career and pedagogical) guidance and support devices — namely tutorship —, as well as the courses, programmes and institutions’ functioning and organization.