Exploring the links between adult education and human resource development: Learning, risk-taking, and democratic discourse

Abstract

Learning is indeed an integral component of adapting successfully to an ever-changing world, one full of intriguing possibilities and insidious barriers. Democratic societies establish educative systems where learning and development is promoted to advance a citizenry of skillful problem solvers, knowledgeable decision makers, incisive risk takers, and proactive participants in the democratic process. Learning and its unequivocal support are thus vital for an evolving democratic society where its citizens are mindful of and committed to the social good. The fields of adult education (AE) and human resource development (HRD) play particularly significant roles in providing quality learning and development opportunities for adults, yet both are underrated in terms of their contributions to society as a whole. In this paper, I explore AE and HRD as closely related, but underestimated parts of a greater educative system. Both fields’ perceived marginal role as educative system participants may be a function of unnecessarily fractious debates among scholars and practitioners in their respective fields. Unfortunately, differences and not similarities are promoted too often at the expense of useful cooperation and one unified voice.