The purpose of this article is to critique human resource development's (HRD) dominant philosophy, practices, and research; illustrate how they negatively affect women HRD practitioners and recipients; and recommend alternative conceptualizations of the field. This article is grounded in a critical feminist theoretical framework, draws on critical…

Among the little truly predictable, the author suggests three truths. First is the inevitability of recessions. Second is the belief that, in prosperity, these good times will just keep on rolling. Third is the fall. Bubbles will burst, myths shatter, plans unravel and pain sadly borne unjustly by those who didn't have a hand in the decisions that…

A combination of destructive trends in higher education--shrinking state budgets, stagnant student aid, the growth of corporate-style management, the overuse and exploitation of contingent faculty, increasing workloads and attacks on academic freedom--is weakening the educational integrity and professionalism of American colleges and universities.…

All workplaces are sites in which people learn. To state such a fact still seems fairly revolutionary given that many employers and policymakers tend to restrict the meaning of job-related learning to formal episodes of "training" that can be counted and costed. This view is rooted in a wider perception prevalent in society in general…

The Reading Agency has been backing and building a movement in libraries called reader development. The movement is creating a livelier, more interventionist reading service that's both much more attractive and socially relevant. A focus on reader development is changing the way public libraries work, and transforming people's lives in the…

The fields of instructional technology (IT) and human resource development (HRD) are both evolving fields of study and practice with overlapping domains. However, this overlap can be viewed not as a redundancy but as a potential opportunity to mutually strengthen both fields. This paper offers a preliminary conceptualization on how to capitalize…

Organizational commitment has been explored extensively over the past 40 years because of its benefits to individuals and the organization. Action learning, in turn, has been used by companies worldwide to develop leaders, teams and organizations. No study, however, has been undertaken to determine how action learning might develop organizational…

Human resource development (HRD) practitioners are increasingly being called upon to become more evidence-based in their approaches. This article urges HRD professionals to practice five imperatives in order to ensure ongoing competence. These imperatives include practicing conscious competence, asking for the evidence and research base for…

In recent years, a concatenation of fears, pressures, and agendas has produced a new round of testing in the form of high school exit examinations. There has not, however, been an accompanying rush to see whether the exams do any good. No state has attempted to validate its test against external criteria: given the hyperbole surrounding the tests…

As the Internet continues to drain readers and advertising, newspapers are left with no choice but to cut back on coverage. Many papers have settled on higher education as an expendable beat. At the National Education Writers Association, which represents education reporters and editors around the country, the e-mail list for elementary- and…

Recent Yale alumnus Jarrad Aguirre relates his experience creating MAS Familias, a campus organization that supports Latino/a undergraduates studying math and science. Alarmed by Latino/a students' academic struggles and the lack of Latino/a role models in the fields of math and science--and increasingly aware of the social benefits of a diverse…

"School Psychology: A Blueprint for Training and Practice III" (Ysseldyke et al., 2006) continues an over 20-year tradition of reenvisioning school psychology. This latest edition focuses with great clarity on school psychology as, ideally, a profession devoted to the prevention of school-based difficulties for children and capacity building for…

The author, chair of the new improvement organization for further education and skills, shares her optimism on what the emerging agency can achieve, but she is aware of the challenges facing a sector struggling to keep pace with inspectors' expectations. These struggles include: (1) The slow delivery of curriculum; (2) The sector's struggle to…

Texas has a proud history of being a multicultural state. Of its nearly 23 million residents (U.S. Census Bureau, 2006), none of its major racial or ethnic groups (Anglo, Hispanic, Black, American Indian, or Asian) constitutes a majority of the population. San Antonio, with a population of over 1.2 million, is the second-largest city in Texas,…

Korean lifelong learning in practice is gradually adapted by neo-liberals and the discourses of the economic market. Considering that the public foundation of Korean education is fragile to cope with the market challenge, the whole picture of Korean learning ecology is rapidly distorted towards the establishment of the learning market and the…