Research Domain: Group Two - Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR)

Title of Project: The Development of a "Values" Document for PLAR

Start Date: April 17, 1997
Academic Co-Investigators: Dr. Alan Thomas (OISE/UT), Monica Collins (U. Windsor)
Community Partners: CAW, CEP, CSTEC
Student Researchers: Sue Vanstone (OISE/UT), Luis Barnola (OISE/UT)

The essence of the operation and impact of PLAR is that it is intended to bridge a number of critical "gaps" in Canadian society. At its core it tries to equate knowledge acquired by different means and sources. In that attempt it compels the relationship of non-students with the essential activity of teaching agencies, evaluation; it involves the relationships between the different contexts from which knowledge is derived, including the primary agencies of those contexts, eg. teaching agencies, labour organizations, employers, voluntary groups, and families. Each of these agencies, and the individuals in them, bring to the processes stimulated by the use of PLAR, different values and principles of action. Most, though not all of them, are represented among the participants in Group 2. To a degree, the membership of Group 2, even its missing interests, represent a microcosm of the agencies and interests involved in the utilization of PLAR anywhere in the world. The interaction of different knowledge, based on how it was learned, and the values embedded in it has become one of the primary interactions of the contemporary world.

We know of no example, oral or written, where the values implicit in the utilization of PLAR have been identified and openly explored. We believe that such an exploration is essential to the work of Group 2, to the entire NALL project, and to the future of PLAR in Canada.

Experience and material emerging from our projects "A Review of the Current State of the Use of PLAR in Canada and Abroad" and "The Development of an Annotated Bibliography for PLAR" will be closely linked with this project, "The Development of a "Values" Document for PLAR." What is involved is the "commissioning" of position papers from each of the major interests; the circulation of those papers (to NALL as a whole, through various electronic and publishing networks) and the holding of a modest workshop, composed primarily of members of Group 2, and the publication of the results.