Teaching and learning social justice in human resource development graduate programs: Preparation for research and practice

Despite calls for research into how critical and social justice themes are taught in HRD programs (Byrd, 2015), the current literature tells us little about how future scholars and practitioners are being prepared to face workplace injustice. Recent curricular research examining published curriculum lists and course descriptions have reported no evidence of critical or social justice approaches to HRD being taught (Lim & Rager, 2015; Lim, Song, Choi, & Kim, 2013; Zachmeier, Cho, & Kim, 2014). This project uses qualitative survey methodology informed by critical race theory to critically interrogate HRD curricula. The purpose of this article is to present findings from a study designed to assess how—or if—social justice perspectives are being taught in HRD graduate programs.