Chapter 9: A Human Capabilities Development Perspective In Adult Education

Even while education is understood to have an overall positive effect on human development, quite a bit of debate exists as to what avenues of development are most important and should be prioritized. For decades, the field of adult education has been caught in a tension between humanistic and instrumental approaches to adult learning (Rubenson, 2006). Since the turn of the century, adult education policy has been primarily framed using human capital development theory (Holford & Mohorčič-Špolar, 2012; Schuetze, 2006), and yet, the historical underpinnings of the field in a philosophy of humanism and social justice remain alive and well. We consider this dueling dichotomy between humanism and human capital theory in adult education to be unproductive, and suggest an alternative lens for understanding human development.