Credentialism

Credentialism is the bias of over-reliance on credentials, regardless of qualification, for purposes of conferring jobs or social status [1] [2]. Credentialism is related to the idea that schools and universities create a mindset that equates credentials with qualifications. 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 the profession, if legally the profession's practice requires a license.

There exists a debate between autodidacts and businesses about what qualifications are necessary to effectively do one's job.^{[citation needed]} In some professions, only the ones with credentials are hired. In many cases, laws regarding the granting of professional licenses severely impact the debate about the need for a credential in hiring (i.e., when the requirement is set at the state level, not at the level of the boss or individual business). In some 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.

See also

• Appeal to authority

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.

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