The pursuit of a doctorate is perhaps the most challenging, rewarding, and paradoxical academic experience one ever undertakes. It is one that only very few professionals begin, and one that even fewer ever complete.
It is not difficult to see why so few follow the course of pursuing an advanced degree. A doctoral program is demanding, time‑consuming, and expensive. The stresses of class participation, independent study, research, testing, writing, library usage, working with doctoral committee members, and complying with university policies all take their toll. This may be especially true for professionals who often have family, work, and community responsibilities competing for their time and attention. Yet, for those who accept the challenge of a doctorate, the professional and personal rewards can be more than compensating. While advanced doctoral study can be a stressful and demanding experience, it is fundamentally a rewarding growth and development experience.
The discovery of new knowledge, acquisition of new skills, awareness of additional resources, formation of important professional networks, and expanded career options all await the serious doctoral participant. Perhaps the greatest reward, however, occurs within the participant rather than outside. New and different ways of thinking about and approaching both professional and personal issues and decisions are nearly always an outgrowth of doctoral study, as is the great sense of personal satisfaction at having undertaken and completed such a substantial goal.
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The Doctoral Program in Adult Education and Human Resource Development is planned, managed, and provided by the faculty of the program, working in concert with the College of Education and University faculty and administration. The goals of the Graduate Program in Adult Education and Human Resource Development are as follows:
- To serve the advanced professional development needs of individuals concerned with the improvement of training, education, and other types of developmental programs that focus on adults.
- To provide technical assistance, consultation, and other professional services to organizations that conduct, sponsor and/or promote Adult Education and Human Resource Development programs, as well as to related institutions in the greater South Florida, state, national and international communities;
- To advance innovative practices and the empirical and theoretical base of the fields of Adult Education and Human Resource Development through research and special demonstration projects.
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The development and education of adults is a large and growing area of educational participation and programming in the United States, and, increasingly, in many nations of the world. This requires a concomitant increase in the number of professional practitioners who can provide appropriate learning and development activities, materials, and services to a progressively more diverse population. Trends in adult education (AE), vocational and technical education, international intercultural development education, and human resource development (HRD), influence this reality. For all these areas the dynamics of longer life expectancy and ever-increasing rates of social and technological change necessitate that individuals continue to systematically learn and develop through the lifespan. In HRD at least six important trends impact the environment:
- increased pressure and capacity to measure global workforce productivity;
- increased pressure to demonstrate the value of HRD services;
- increased pressure to develop and produce the workforce supply,
- ever increasing rates of technological and organizational sophistication in a more uncertain business environment;
- increased expectations for higher levels of judgment and flexibility in worker contribution, specifically in the areas of creativity, risk taking, adaptation to change, and teamwork;
- increased sophistication and professionalism in HRD as a field of work.
These trends began to take hold in the 1990s, and they strongly continue into the new century. These trends also necessitate ever-increasing attention to development of and participation in AE and HRD activities. Such development is nearly certain to intensify in the future, for the professional development of adults as workers and members of society is a self-perpetuating "growth industry."
The cycle of learning—discovery of new knowledge and the resulting requirement for additional learning—is readily apparent to most of us. It is particularly evident in the "explosion of technology". However, the advancement of knowledge knows no "content" boundaries; hence, we observe equally dramatic advances in all aspects of the arts, sciences, humanities, and social sciences, all of which demand our continued growth and development in order to be fully functional persons.
In short, each of us is in a race, at an ever advancing pace, with personal and professional obsolescence. This race involves each of us as individuals, but it also involves our organizations and communities, which also must continue to grow and develop to meet new challenges. It is toward the facilitation of such individual, organizational and community change that the Graduate Program in Adult Education and Human Resource Development is directed and dedicated.
In recognition of the expansion and significance of this relatively new field of professional practice and academic study, Florida International University planned for and initiated the Graduate Program in Adult Education and Human Resource Development when the University opened in 1972. Since that time, the program has served the professional development needs of thousands of individuals and hundreds of agencies. It has distinguished itself as an important component of the College of Education, the University, the state, nation, and the world.
Florida International University is one of four state universities with an advanced graduate degree in AE, but the only one to combine it with HRD at the doctoral level. Ever increasing numbers of professional personnel are being called upon to assume the task of structuring, facilitating, and managing AE and HRD in a wide variety of public and private settings. For example, Miami-Dade County alone is the “home office” to over 40 transnational businesses. In addition, in Florida in particular, the need for patient education (AE) and continuing professional development (HRD) in healthcare settings has expanded as the landscape of health care services continues to change and the population of patients and healthcare workers increases. Government, business and industry, and education are also areas that need our graduates. In sum, this doctoral degree program in Adult Education and Human Resource Development is directed toward the facilitation of individual, organizational, and career development of adults in the U.S. and around the world.
In contrast to most programs in colleges of education, the Graduate Program in Adult Education and Human Resource Development focuses on the following:
- Adults, rather than children, as learners and workers;
- A wide spectrum of formal and informal organizations, rather than just schools;
- Lifespan learning needs, rather than age or grade‑specific learning needs;
- Education as a means of individual, organizational, and community problem solving, rather than as a mechanism for generic preparation and acculturation;
- Diversified forms of delivery, rather than singular methods such as the "class."
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The Graduate Program in Adult Education and Human Resource Development (AE/HRD) serves the needs of a wide range of AE/HRD professionals through provision of the following advanced study options:
- The Doctor of Education Degree (Ed.D.) in Adult Education and Human Resource Development. This program also offers a specialization in International Intercultural Development Education (IIDE).
- The Master of Science Degree (M.S.) in Adult Education.
- The Master of Science Degree (M.S.) in Human Resource Development.
The Program works closely with the non‑credit Certificate Program in Human Resource Development offered by the Center for Management Development, College of Business Administration, and the Graduate Certificate Program in Conflict Resolution offered by the Center for Labor Research and Studies. Also, the Graduate Program in Adult Education and Human Resource Development contributes course options within the University's undergraduate and graduate certificate programs in Gerontology offered through the South Florida Center on Aging.
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The AE/HRD doctoral program serves a diverse group of professionals who share a common academic objective, namely, to become more proficient in utilizing educationally‑related strategies to facilitate the systematic, deliberate, and purposeful growth and development of individuals, organizations, and/or communities. The pursuit of this common objective requires a doctoral curriculum that enables participants to effectively fulfill one or more of the following roles in the field:
| Patient/client/customer education |
Instructional design and development |
| Corporate training and education |
Organization development |
| Continuing professional education |
Lifelong learning |
| Professorate in AE or HRD |
Research and evaluation |
| Computer- and web-based instruction |
Strategic planning and budgeting |
| Individual and career development |
Market analysis and planning |
| Job, task, and duty analysis |
Continuous quality improvement/TQM |
| Workforce development |
Human performance technology |
| Consultation and technical assistance |
Instructional delivery and facilitation |
| Staff development |
Program development & management |
These roles in adult education and human resource development are reflected, to varying degrees, in all doctoral participants' programs of study depending upon their career aspirations, previous academic preparation, and professional experiences.
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Participants in the AE/HRD Graduate Program come from diverse occupational and academic backgrounds. A significant feature of the AE/HRD target population is that over 80% of the program's participants come from organizations other than "schools." A vast majority also has undergraduate and/or graduate degrees in fields other than education such as public administration, psychology, and business to name a few. At any given point in time, the following types of entities typically are represented by students in the program:
| Adult and community education centers |
US and foreign armed forces |
| Banks and other financial organizations |
Business and industry organizations |
| Hospitals and health organizations |
Private consulting firms |
| Public and private utilities |
Religious organizations |
| Civic and professional associations |
Social service agencies |
| Vocational‑Technical education centers |
Colleges and universities |
| Government agencies |
Voluntary associations |
| Law enforcement and correctional agencies |
Libraries and information centers |
| Zoos, museums, and cultural centers |
Public and proprietary schools |
The International Intercultural Development Education (IIDE) specialization serves the advanced graduate needs of a wide range of professionals dealing with U.S. and international adult education issues in multicultural/intercultural dimensions and the increasing globalization of education and socioeconomic realities. The program responds to US and region-specific, short- and long-range educational needs as cited in the recommendations of the U.S. Departments of State and Education and international organizations such as UNESCO, the World Bank, UNICEF, OEI, OCDE, OAS, NAFTA, and UNDP.
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