From Individual Learning to Social Learning - Reframing HRD Theory and Practice

摘要

I think that we can now claim with some confidence that HRD has moved beyond describing itself as an emergent field: scholars are not so preoccupied with defining the boundaries of our intellectual pursuit as they were five years ago (for an example of the latter see the debate in Human Resource Development International, Issue 4:3). However, while our intellectual focus is no longer emergent, we have certainly not arrived at a consensus on the scope of our field of inquiry, nor on the range of theoretical frameworks and methods of inquiry that we employ. This is clearly evident in the articles that we are including in this issue of Human Resource Development International. We are including papers that encourage us to reframe the scope of our field (Carmeli and Weisberg); that call for us to adopt greater rigour in the way we develop theory (Storberg-Walker); and that challenge some of the assumptions about individual learning of professionals and managers (Tillema; DeWolfe Waddill; Sadler-Smith and Smith).