This ethnography examines how teachers interpret and enact language-in-education policies in an adult ESL classroom in the United States, where students simultaneously received job training as Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs). We draw on postmodern and interpretive lenses from the ethnography of communication, considering how workforce-oriented…

Employability skills are central to gaining and keeping employment (e.g. whether paid or unpaid, as an employee or self employed) as well as career progression. The lack of such skills is regularly referred to as one reason for the United Kingdom's often cited long tail of underachievement. Employability skills are at the forefront of government…

The authors of this report analyzed the most recent data to illustrate the impact of literacy skills on both the micro- and macro-economic levels. The report explores whether there is a case to be made for direct links between literacy skill and income level. Data relating to the ability to get a job, job retention and promotion, risk of job loss,…

Leonard Nadler, who created George Washington University's doctoral program in human resources development (HRD) in 1962, discusses definitions of HRD and its growth as a discipline. (JOW)

Focusing on training as it relates to adult education, this article provides three definitions of adult education and discusses three categories of adult educators. It is noted that trainers work with people who see themselves essentially as adults, and in that sense trainers are adult educators. (LRA)

Describes distinctions between learning, training, development, and education and illustrates how different models of human resource management/development influence their meaning. Concludes that training, development, and education are an integrated whole linked by the concept of learning. (SK)

Human resource development (HRD) as a scholarly endeavor and as a practice is often criticized in the adult education (AE) literature and by AE scholars as manipulative and oppressive and, through training and other interventions, controlling workers for strictly economic ends (Baptiste, 2001; Cunningham, 2004; Schied, 2001; Welton, 1995).…

Adult education must become popular education in both communal and personal terms to survive funding agencies' special power-interest hegemonies, traditional higher education models, and rampant economic materialism. This article discusses six modernist constructions of adult education, highlighting professionalization and specialization, and…

This document contains three papers from a symposium on core directions in human resource development (HRD). In "Expertise: The Development of an Operational Definition for Human Resource Development" (Richard W. Herling), expertise is defined as consistent demonstrated actions that are efficient in their execution and effective in their…

This symposium on knowledge management and human capital consists of three presentations. "Analyzing and Solving Difficulties Experienced in Knowledge Management: The Case of a Knowledge Intensive Organization" (Simone J. van Zolingen, Jan N. Streumer, Maaike Stooker) distinguishes five phases of the knowledge management process and…

Although the Japanese term "kyo-iku" is translated into English as "education," significant differences exist between the two terms. A new term, "ergonagy," has been advocated to help integrate the Japanese concept of kyo-iku and the Western concept of education. "Ergonagy" is formed from the Greek terms…

This document contains two papers from a symposium that was moderated by facilitator Peter A. DeLisel at the 1995 conference of the Academy of Human Resource Development. "The Case for Learning" (Karen E. Watkins, Victoria J. Marsick) argues for a broader, more transformative definition of the field of human resource development (HRD),…

This symposium on career development issues consists of three presentations. "Career Development: What Is Its Role in Human Resource Development (HRD)?" (Mary Allyn Boudreaux) explores the role of career development theory and research in the field of HRD. Definitions of HRD are provided, and the status of career theory and research and its…

This document contains three papers on ethics and integrity in human resource development (HRD). "Redefining Human Resource Development: An Integration of the Learning, Performance, and Spirituality of Work Perspectives" (Reid A. Bates, Tim Hatcher, Elwood F. Holton III, Neal Chalofsky) describes an effort to articulate the tensions…

Three alternative views of adult development can serve to distinguish competing schools of thought regarding the research, theory, and practice of human resource development (HRD). These views are as follows: (1) the person-centered view, which aims at self-realization of the individual and is grounded in humanistic psychology and liberalism; (2)…