Chapter 3: A Pedagogy of Self-Development: Making Room for Alternative Forms of Capital

The skill sets needed to become successful (i.e., maintaining a decent standard of living and the enhancement of posterity) in today’s society have changed drastically over the last fifty years. The world has become increasingly smaller in the sense of the plexus of communication, networking, and commerce that is taking place throughout the world. The corollary of such a plexus of interaction among nation-states has been the increasing demand for human capital regardless of geopolitical demarcations to supply the ever-growing need for those who can perform certain requirements and tasks of the 21st century (Bartee & Brown, 2007; Brooks, 2010; Friedman, 2005). Regardless of whether one feels that countries are headed in the right direction with regard to trade policies, national goals, etc., the fact remains that human capital is going to be required to satisfy the demands of technological advances that lead to prosperity and posterity of not only nation-states but also individual families (Brooks, 2010; Hornbeck & Salamon, 1991). The great recession that started in 2008 was ominous with regard to those who could be adversely impacted by unstable economic conditions. In reference to this recent economic crisis, Herbert (2010) opined, “The people suffering the most drastic employment reversals in this recession have been those who were in the lower-income groups to begin with—the young, less well-educated workers, especially black and Hispanic high school dropouts, and certain categories of service workers, such as food preparers and building cleaners” (p. 1).