Credentialism

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Credentialism is a negative term used to describe a primary reliance on credentials, regardless of qualification, for purposes of conferring jobs or social status [1] [2]. For example, a person who has a diploma for an academic degree in a subject, but limited experience, may be hired for a job, whereas a person who has studied the subject and has had wide experience in the field may not be hired or allowed a license to practice. This is more common in white collar jobs as most blue collar jobs have traditionally used an apprentice system.

Some professions rely to higher degree on credintials. In many cases, the granting of professional licenses has been institutionalized. Laws may dictate the need for a credential by a requirement is set at the state level. In other fields, those without credentials may start their own businesses. Credentials acquired in one country by a worker may be discounted or less respected upon that worker's arrival in another country, although this is not always the case.

Opposition to credentialism is a tenet of the unschooling movement.

[edit] See also

• Appeal to authority

[edit] References

• The Credential Society: An Historical Sociology of Education and Stratification by Randall Collins, Academic Press, 1979.
• Power in the Highest Degree: Professionals and the Rise of a New Mandarin Order by Charles Derber, William A. Schwartz, Yale Magrass, Oxford University Press, 1990.
• Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich, 1971.
• Disabling Professions by Ivan Illich et al., 1977.
• The Careless Society: community and its counterfeits by John McKnight, New York: BasicBooks, 1995.
• Confessions of a Medical Heretic by Robert S. Mendelsohn, Chicago: Contemporary books, 1979.
• Proving You're Qualified: Strategies for Competent People without College Degrees by Charles D. Hayes, Autodidactic Press, 1995.
• Meehl, P. E. (1997). Credentialed persons, credentialed knowledge. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 4, 91-98.