emerging practices and discourses from an empirical research

In this communication we intend to present and cliscuss preliminar)' results frorn a work developed within a post-doc research entitled "Higher Education and Life long Learning: Recognition of prior learning and educational change". This research work is being developed fram a theoretical framework and from appraaches to Education/training of adults. Since the problem of recognition of prior experientiallearning is very recent in the context of Higher Education in Portugal, we try to identify the emerging practices and reflect on the tendencies and the rationale of these processes. At a first stage of the empirical work we performed an exploratory study - a questionnaire presented to the Portuguese public universities followed by a bibliographical analysis of political and legal documents. At a second stage of the research we interviewed postgraduate degree coorclinators (masters) and from the analysis it seems possible to identify clifferent rationales for the valorisation of prior learning in the context of higher education. Considering that it is a complex phenomenon, we try to inter-crass these clifferent levels of analysis in order to contribute to a more profound understanding of the recognition and validation processes of experiential prior learning in Portuguese Higher Education institutions.