Women returners are women who leave the paid workforce for a period of time following the birth of their child(ren) and subsequently seek to return to paid employment. As women returners attempt to re-enter the workforce, many of them are in need of updating their skills or re-training in a new set of skills. In this study, the training and…

A debate that has engaged the attention of educators and scores of intellectuals is the longstanding issue of pedagogy versus andragogy. The nature of the debate, given the interdisciplinary theoretical assumptions that underpin the issue, has had a polarizing effect on these scholars; as a result, there has been the emergence of competing…

This study describes the experience of younger, so called "emerging" adults, as they transition to full-time work, focusing specifically on the role of education in this process. When leaving their family-of-origin, emerging adults re-center themselves to settle down in permanent identity and different role commitments. Our findings show…

Although theorizing about humor has occurred for several decades, scant research exists that examines humor in the broad context of human resource development. Humor exists in workplaces and it is historicized in the professional and organizational contexts of workers. This paper explores aspects of a joking culture within the specific work…

Paradigms aid organizational researchers in their quest to find the "truth" of a particular event, phenomenon, activity, or topic and by providing them a framework with which to make assumptions about the nature of society and reality. According to Burrell and Morgan (1978), organizational researchers use one of four paradigms:…

As baby boomers approach the age of retirement, they are increasingly returning to higher education to pursue degrees for encore careers. Academic planners must pay careful attention to the specific concerns of this population to help ease their transition to a university setting after decades of absence. This qualitative study investigated the…

This article examines the role of intrinsic motivation in the academic pursuits of nontraditional students. The Academic Motivational Scale (AMS) was administered to 35 undergraduate students, 6 males and 29 females, aged 25 to 49 to explore their motivational orientations in choosing to attend college. The results of the study show that…

A corporate executive provides an amusing and reflective account on her experience of being downsized. This "day in the life" perspective documents the feelings of an individual who found herself served with "divorce papers" from a job that had, in many ways, defined her identity. Her personal story shines the spotlight on…

Asset mapping is a relatively new data collection strategy to identify services, staff capacity, programs, resources, values, and other protective factors in a geographic area that can be juxtaposed to risk factors when initiating community planning. A substance abuse prevention course for undergraduates added an assignment of assessing community…

The one constant for all dissertations, and for all research for that matter, is the need to state the problem of the study based on the scholarly literature. Doctoral programs commonly require that students take a sequence of research courses that usually focus on how to carry-out a study. That is, the design, the methodology, and the…

Forms of White oppression in the United States are hierarchically evaluated through male-dominated society. This paper concentrates on a different perspective--White, female privilege through the experiences and self-reflections of narratives from three geographical perspectives--rural, urban, and international. Within the theoretical frameworks…

This paper dives into the messy work of writing (our) sexualities into our qualitative research. We suggest that even though queering research methods opens up new ways of conducting research and sharing a queer identity with research participants there are some limitations to both notions. One such limitation is that queer identities and…

Concept maps can be used as both a cognitive and constructivist learning strategy in teaching and learning in adult education and human resource development. The maps can be used to understand course readings, analyze case studies, develop reflective thinking and enhance research skills. The creation of concept maps can also be supported by the…

The tenure track in higher education represents a path shrouded in a fair degree of mystery. This essay provides the perspective of a middle-aged, second-career tenure track faculty member on the vagaries of progressing down the track as an out lesbian. Three dialectics that build tension into the process--covering-creating, evaluation-liberation,…

Bullying is a serious problem in contemporary American society. Many adults are now suffering from bullying, which has conventionally been thought of as a childhood behavior. While a general form of bullying has been focused on by contemporary scholars, specific types of bullying (racist bullying and homophobic bullying) have not well been…