Using Deliberative Inquiry to Assess Future Needs for a Graduate HRD Curriculum: A Case Study

Abstract

The many changes in today's workplace argue for equivalent changes in educating human resource development (HRD) professionals. The need for HRD curricular changes to be thought out fully and future-focused warrants the use of systematic methods for formulating, solving, and learning more about how to formulate and solve curriculum problems. Deliberative inquiry is such a method. This research methodology is directed toward curricular decision-making as it occurs within a specific context and, simultaneously, toward learning how to formulate and solve such problems. This study focuses on how faculty members in one university department used the problem formulation phase of deliberative inquiry to assess future needs for their HRD specialization. The article first overviews the research methodology of deliberative inquiry and then describes the systematic approach-subject matter analysis-that was used to structure the problem formulation relative to HRD curricular needs. The problem formulation process clarified stakeholders' values. It also resulted in reframing the situation, which led to new insights about the issues facing the HRD curriculum and ways to address them.