ABSTRACT
This chapter draws on a research project exploring a process of recognition of prior learning (RPL) in the health care sector, for which Habermas’ theory of communicative action was used as an analytical framework. Habermas’ critical social theory has been of interest to scholars and researchers in education (Ewert 1991) and recent educational literature drawing on Habermas suggest that this interest is ongoing (Murphy and Fleming 2010). Just as it is possible to divide Habermas’ intellectual career into different periods, educational scholars draw from different periods in his career; for instance, earlier writings on knowledge and human interests (1971) to communicative action (1984, 1987) and the more recent focus on deliberative democracy (1996). Habermas’ most signifi cant contribution to social theory is nevertheless probably associated with his famous turn to language and the attendant construction of the theory of communicative action (1984, 1987).
