HR9639 - Critical Human Resource Development (CHRD)

As you will be adopting a critical perspective to HRD, examining critical content and critical process, so the module will concomitantly adopt methods of teaching, learning and assessment which reinforce a critical approach in HRD practice. Your learning is supported through tutor-led and learner-led session activities, also through tutor-directed/guided and self-directed independent study.
Tutor-led research-informed sessions will help you to develop your conceptual and theoretical understanding of C-HRD. A collaborative, learner-led, tutor-guided learning approach will support your application of these concepts and theories.

Your learning is also supported by appropriate learning technologies that include extensive and carefully curated learning resources including video and webinars from the worlds’ leading HR researchers and practitioners, to enable your self-directed learning.

In addition to the tutor-directed/guided learning activities, your independent self-directed learning will involve you self-identifying learning activities, such as further academic reading, to gain a deeper and broader knowledge of the subject.

The learner-led, tutor-guided activities are organised in groups of around 20-30 learners working in smaller teams. This approach provides a closer, more personal academic support.
Academics will support you through the led sessions and in planning the types of activities you should be engaging in during your independent study time. They are also available upon request to support you outside of formal session time by responding to questions or concerns that you might have either via email or via individually pre-arranged appointments and/or drop-in sessions.

Academic support is also provided through the provision of a range of University learning support services. A wide range of online support materials is also available thought the virtual learning environment. These materials include recordings, webcasts, pre-recorded sessions, also an electronic reading list including RSS feeds that showcase the application of various practices presented in the module.

To support you in your academic progress, you will receive both formative and summative feedback/feed-forward on your work through the course of each academic year. Regular formative feedback on class activities provides you with the necessary guidance to scaffold your knowledge and understanding of the key concept and principles of the subject to enable your success in the final summative assessment. Summative feedback/feed-forward will be provided on your work after it has been assessed and graded. You should use all feedback/feed-forward that you receive to identify areas of strength and areas for future study and improvement

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

Knowledge & Understanding:
• To understand contrasting ontological, epistemological and axiological bases of HRD to critically analyse prevailing and possible modes of HRD [MLO 1]
• To understand the interplay of societal structures/assumptions (e.g around age, gender, ethnicity) and individual agency in the efficacy of HRD to thereby evaluate the construct of identity as both a prerequisite and outcome of HRD [MLO 2]

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
• To challenge your understanding of the role and place of learning and of HRD by critically reflecting on your underpinning assumptions, beliefs and attitudes [MLO 3]
• To collaboratively, as a team, use critical and creative thinking in the design and evaluation of innovative, inclusive and emancipatory learning interventions [MLO 4]

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
• To understand and evaluate the professionalisation of HRD and its ethical foundations in order to discern issues of power and control within organisations’ HRD practices [MLO 5]

Formative assessment:
Throughout the module you should actively participate in scheduled and self-directed activities and should engage in discussions and feedback exercises to challenge your own thinking and that of your peers. Face-to-face sessions will provide you with the opportunity to self-assess your knowledge and understanding through applying the different aspects/topics examined. You will work through small groups activities that will enable you to secure on-going feedback from your peers.

Summative assessment
1) Team-based: Designing and facilitating a learning intervention to include critical engagement with other teams’ activities (40%) [MLO2, MLO4, MLO5
2) Reflexive-reflective examination of how the designed learning intervention enables realisation of human potential rather than merely of organisational goals (60%) [MLO1, MLO2, MLO3]
Feedback will be provided by tutors in the form of a grading rubric and narrative comments with an emphasis on formative feed-forward for the subsequent assignment or subsequent modules

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This research-rich module, Critical Human Resource Development will equip you with the necessary knowledge and skills to develop as a critically reflective/reflexive, and capable graduate HRD professional, or manager, who can effectively and ethically facilitate the learning of others.
You will develop understanding of the contrasting perspectives on HRD to recognise the contribution that C-HRD might make to organisations. By developing your understanding of such organisational issues as power, politics, ideology and status, you will advance your understanding of the tensions and complexities that characterise HRD, to challenge and question assumptions, traditions and what is often ‘taken for granted’. Through this lens of power and control, you will appraise the role of societal structures such as age, gender, ethnicity, career-structure norms, influence experiences of HRD intervention , and through understanding the interplay of such societal structures with individual agency you will evaluate the construct of identity as both a prerequisite and outcome of HRD.