Critical reflections of emerging farmers’ individual perspective towards assessments in recognition of prior learning for unit standards credit of agricultural courses

Interventions to redress the apartheid education’s negative impact on the education and training systems of the previously disadvantaged groups in South Africa include the implementation of recognition of prior learning (RPL). The paper attempts to qualitatively assess emerging farmers’ individual perspectives by analysing their cognitive and non-cognitive characteristics during RPL credit assessment sessions. A total of 200 Free State province emerging farmers participated in an RPL credit assessment session of the unit standards to be recognised for two agricultural qualifications. The RPL unit standards credit assessment sessions for two agricultural courses were conducted in a classroom for 3 months. The data generated from text, video, and voice recordings was processed and analysed using critical discourse analysis. What emerged from the discussions was that emerging farmers were appreciative of the opportunity to embrace spontaneity during training. The study found that embracing adult learning principles had a positive effect on the cognitive and non-cognitive characteristics of emerging farmers during training. The findings of this paper will help strengthen the understanding of how RPL is implemented in the context of emerging farmers and further development of what needs to be done to further improve RPL procedure.