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ADULT DEVELOPMENT: A GLOBAL IMPERATIVE
Linda E. Morris, Ed. D.
ABSTRACT : As individuals and adult educators we consistently face an array of what seem to be increasingly complex challenges. These run the gamut from battling poverty and illness with their deleterious and deadly effects, to acquiring literacy and workplace competencies and to building expertise in communication, collaboration and innovation. And we live in a time of rapidly shifting technology, social and political unrest, and burgeoning environmental threats. How are we to grow, thrive and lead? One option is to consider what we can learn and apply from adult development theories and practices for own and others’ intentional development -- and then to deliberately act to foster adult development in individuals and within organizations and communities. There are, of course, many views of what constitutes adult development and how it occurs. In this paper, written to initiate dialogue and discussion, I focus on the perspective that development in adulthood represents a set of substantive qualitative changes that we may undergo moving from dependency to interdependency, from being shaped to a great degree by our environment, to constructing and co-creating thoughts and views. Theories, e.g., by Boydell, Cook- Greuter and Kegan, are related to concepts of individual, workforce and community development, and intentional/deliberate adult development practices in universities and the workplace are described.
Keywords: adult development, development, stage theory, constructive developmental theory, deliberately developmental organization, development organization
As I write this paper, the contentious presidential election of 2016 is in full swing in the United States. Listening to the candidates and their supporters and noting the contrasts that abound, I have begun to consider that what is at play is not a clash of political parties or theory but a developmental collision, perhaps more ubiquitous and difficult to mitigate or overcome than party or political differences. While political commentators and the media discern differences in values, temperament and character, I wonder: Are these candidates at different points in their developmental trajectories?
Grasping the concept of development in adulthood and comprehending how we and others develop and take charge of or influence the journey is critical not only to understanding political candidates, but also for preparing ourselves to function as individuals, workers and citizens in our complex world. Perusing a newspaper, exploring the Internet, or listening to radio or television, we are constantly bombarded with information, scenes, and sounds of the challenges of our times: abject poverty, crippling and deadly illnesses, the churn of labor markets where demands for specific skills and knowledge are rapidly shifting with the spread of technology, social and political strife and endangered environments. This is the backdrop for us and the adult learners we as adult educators, managers and leaders serve.
My purpose in writing this paper is to highlight the need to be more explicit and intentional about development throughout adulthood and to provide increased and varied opportunities for development. As an adult educator I have focused on both adult learning -- helping learners to “acquire, enhance or make changes in knowledge, skills, values and worldviews” (Merriam, Caffarella, & Baumgartner, 2007. p.277) -- and
development -- to “unfold, to grow into latent potential” (Smith & Taylor, 2010, p. 49). For me, as a member of learning and development groups in consulting organizations and university faculties, advancing adults’ learning has been an explicit goal and encouraging their development more often an implicit one. Given the challenges of today’s workplaces, communities and nations, it is now time to more explicitly concentrate on promoting adult development to prompt longer term shifts in perspectives and behaviors, simultaneously continuing to support adults’ immediate and short-term learning needs.
Meeting these ends requires intensifying actions to: Further understand the integral relationship between adult learning and adult development. Explore theories of adult development. For example, identify one or more framework(s) for development through adulthood as a basis to engage in dialogue and developmental experiences. Investigate broadly. Theories and practices relating to adult development can be discerned in multiple disciplines (e.g., psychology, management development, organizational development). Reflect on current practice. Though we may not have been explicitly focusing on adult development, the perspectives and practices we use (e.g., self-directed, transformational and transformative learning) may in fact be strategies and tactics to foster development, calling out for a framework to bind them together. Learn and act together. Through dialogue and knowledge sharing across roles, venues, countries, and perspectives we may move more quickly towards greater, more comprehensive and more universal understanding on the process and enablers of adult development.
Included in the paper are discussions on development theories and practices, including the current focus on developmental or deliberately developmental organizations. Given the field’s depth and breadth, what is here is the top of the tip of an iceberg, informed and limited by my study and practice, primarily within the United States. Yet, by sharing my views within this international forum, I hope that the ensuing dialogue may be useful to practitioners, managers and organizational leaders from other perspectives and countries as we all support human growth and development.
Adult Learning and Adult Development: An Integral Relationship
Adult learning and adult development are connected and similar but distinct concepts; both are factors in how adults change and grow. Understanding the dimensions and facets of these inextricably combined processes helps us to become aware of or to determine possible outcomes of learning or development opportunities, focus attention on them and create occasions for growth. According to Merriam and Brockett (2007, pp. 5-6), adult learning is: “a cognitive process internal to the learner; it is what the learner does in a teaching-learning transaction, as opposed to what the educator does. Learning also includes the unplanned, incidental learning that is part of everyday life.” Hoare (2011, p. 397) defined adult development as “systematic, qualitative changes in human attributes (e.g., intelligence,
development in adults is much rarer. It refers to how we learn to see the world through new eyes, how we change our interpretations of experience and how we transform our views of reality. It describes increases in what we are aware of, or what we can pay attention to, and therefore what we can influence and integrate. In general, transformations of human consciousness or changes in our view of reality are more powerful than any amount of horizontal growth and learning.
Developmental Assumptions and Trajectory
Cook-Greuter (2013, pp. 2-3) compiled the following list of tenets of constructive developmental theory (which is a stage theory of vertical development) and notes that “full-range” human development theories share most of these assumptions. The list represents a synthesis compiled from results of thousands of hours of work by many researchers and practitioners:
Development theory describes the unfolding of human potential towards deeper understanding, wisdom and effectiveness in the world. Growth occurs in a logical sequence of stages or expanding world views from birth to adulthood. The movement is often likened to an ever widening spiral. Overall, world views evolve from simple to complex, from static to dynamic, and from ego-centric to socio-centric to world-centric. Later stages are reached only by journeying through the earlier stages. Once a stage has been traversed, it remains a part of the individual’s response repertoire, even when more complex, later stages are adopted as primary lenses to look at experience. Each later stage includes and transcends the previous ones. That is, the earlier perspectives remain part of our current experience and knowledge (just as when a child learns to run, it doesn’t stop to be able to walk). Each later stage in the sequence is more differentiated, integrated, flexible and capable of optimally functioning in a rapidly changing and ever more complex world. People’s stage of development influences what they notice and can become aware of, and therefore, what they can describe, articulate, cultivate, influence, and change. As healthy development unfolds, autonomy, freedom, tolerance for difference and ambiguity, as well as flexibility, self-awareness, and skill in interacting with the environment increase while defenses decrease. Derailment in development, pockets of lack of integration, trauma and psychopathology are seen at all levels. Thus later stages are not more adjusted or “happier.” A person who has reached a later stage can understand earlier world-views, but a person at an earlier stage cannot understand the later ones. The depth, complexity, and scope of what people notice can expand throughout life. Yet no matter how evolved we become, our knowledge and understanding is always partial and incomplete. Development occurs through the interplay between person and environment, not just by one or the other. It is a potential and can be encouraged and
facilitated by appropriate support and challenge, but it cannot be guaranteed. While vertical development can be invited and the environment optimally structured towards growth, it cannot be forced. People have the right to be who they are at any station in life. The later the stage, the more variability for unique self-expression exists, and the less readily we can determine where a person’s center of gravity lies. All stage descriptions are idealizations that no human being fits entirely.
A useful context for understanding and presenting an overall view of adult development is that of a trajectory – a life journey – illustrated in Table 1. As with the tenets above, the table is based on study and analysis of multiple researchers and perspectives, and earlier renditions were developed in conjunction with Tom Boydell (2016).
Table 1 The Trajectory of Development As they develop, adults become more able to…
Be aware and intentional Connect with others
Make their own meaning Be collaborative
Take initiatives and risks Be independent and interdependent
Be systematic and systemic in problem solving
Identify and act consistently with a purpose
Note: Adapted from “Revisiting Adult Development: Changing Capabilities, Perspectives and Worldviews,” by L. E. Morris and C. D. Klunk, 2016, Adult Learning, 27, pp.3-6.
Developmental Practices
As individuals and in our roles as students, educators, parents, siblings, children, church members and/or citizen we encounter many situations that require us to go into and beyond ourselves. If we accept the assumptions above (or some of them) and presume the trajectory to be real, we may intentionally adopt practices that may shift our capabilities to be, for example, more systematic, connected with others, collaborative, or independent then interdependent. Even without specific guidelines for such actions, we and others can adopt and experience practices that lead to growth.
These include incorporating learning processes leading to increased understanding and growth into multiple aspects of life, for example: Self-directed learning Transformational learning Experiential learning Reflection (coupled with any type of learning) Journal writing for reflective practice
The methods being used to develop leaders have not changed (much). The majority of managers are developed from on-the-job experiences, training, and coaching/ mentoring; while these are all still important, leaders are no longer developing fast enough or in the right ways to match the new environment. As for the future, he continued: This is no longer just a leadership challenge (what good leadership looks like); it is a development challenge (the process of how to grow “bigger” minds). Managers have become experts on the “what” of leadership, but novices in the “how” of their own development. (Petrie, 2014, p. 5)
Management and leadership development literature, thus, provides valuable information on efforts to promote adult development in the workplace.
Promoting Development
Two perspectives on adult development seem particularly useful in developing strategies to promote development in organizations: Tom Boydell’s Modes of Being and Learning (2016) and constructive-developmental theory (McCauley, Drath, Paulus, O'Connor, & Baker, 2006).
Modes of Being and Learning
According to Boydell (2016, p. 11), development is “moving away from isolated, fragmented atomism, to joining with one or more relatively localized communities or sub-sets of people, thence to a larger unity, seeing everybody, everything, as part of an integral whole,” describing it as “decreased duality, increased unity.” The Modes framework, then, exemplifies a stage model of development, in this case, on the dimension of worldview “in the sense of my perception of, and relationship with, the context in which I find myself” (Boydell, 2016, p.11).
Boydell (2016) posited that development occurs in distinct stages that appear in a particular sequence; once a new stage is reached, previous ones remain but have a different significance. Rejecting the notion of a ladder, he noted he preferred the image of nested eggs (Figure 1); as the whole egg expands, each wave can get bigger.
The Modes of Being and Learning framework originated in the 1980’s (Boydell, 2016). Over time, Boydell and his colleague Chris Blantern found that in their management and organization development world people related more readily to a threefold condensation of the seven Modes into three Stances (Boydell, 2016).
Modes 6 and 7:
Stance 3. Doing better things—together
Modes 4 and 5:
Stance 2. Doing things better
Modes 1 to 3:
Stance 1. Doing things well
Figure 1. Modes and Stances.
The Modes and Stances are very much about how people relate to and operate in the world. Perhaps that is why I have found this perspective so helpful in designing learning activities and analyzing training programs. (Interestingly, Bloom’s taxonomy was an input into Boydell’s thinking when developing the theory [T. Boydell, personal communication July 4, 2002].) For example, at one organization, when we assessed our training activities, we found that while our intention was to build a workforce capable of problem solving and initiating actions (Mode 5), the methods we most frequently used were lectures, didactic instruction, and question and answer sessions (Mode 3). We then substantially changed our approach. See “Facilitation of Development” (Boydell, 2016) in the Special Issue on Adult Development in Adult Learning, Volume 27, for a more in- depth discussion of the framework and application suggestions.
Constructive-Developmental Theory
McCauley et al. (2006, p. 635) noted that constructive-developmental theory is the developmental stage theory most frequently used in the management and leadership literature. Defining constructive-developmental theory as “a stage theory of adult development that focuses on the growth and elaboration of a person's ways of understanding the self and the world” (p. 634), the authors provide an overview of it. They review how the constructive-developmental frameworks of Robert Kegan, William Torbert, and Lawrence Kohlberg have been applied in the theoretical and empirical literature on leadership and management.
The term constructive-developmental was first suggested by Kegan in 1980 to refer to a stream of work in psychology that focuses on the development of meaning and meaning- making processes across the lifespan (McCauley et al., 2006). Kegan, for example, posited levels of consciousness or orders of mind, including the following three adult levels described by Petrie (2014, p. 13):
moves beyond Piaget's exclusive attention on external manifestations of development to also include the inner experience of developing. broadens its focus beyond the individual to include a study of the social context and how it affects development. (McCauley et al., 2006, p. 636)
Summarizing their literature review, McCauley et al. (2006, p. 650) observed that “developmental theory is evolving toward a more holistic, integrative perspective that views individual development as one facet of a developing system.” This finding seems consistent with the tenets compiled by Cook-Greuter (2013) and presented earlier.
Additionally, McCauley et al. (2006, p. 650) asserted:
Because it deals with an aspect of leadership that may be taken as basic— the generation and development of meaning for individuals and social systems— constructive developmental theory has the potential to act as an integrative framework in the field. This potential can only be realized to the extent that theorists, researchers, and practitioners work in more interconnected ways to test and refine the propositions generated by applying this theory to leadership.
Kegan (as cited by Petrie) has summarized what researchers have learned about what causes vertical development (transitions from one stage to another):
- People feel consistently frustrated by situations, dilemmas, or challenges in their lives.
- It causes them to feel the limits of their current way of thinking.
- It is in an area of their life that they care about deeply.
- There is sufficient support that enables them to persist in the face of the anxiety and conflict. (Petrie, 2014. p. 6)
Constructive developmental theory and Kegan’s perspective on transition factors have undergirded the Leadership for Transformational Learning (LTL) program depicted by Drago-Severson, Blum-DeStefano, and Asghar (2013). In Learning for Leadership: Developmental Strategies for Building Capacity in Our Schools (2013) they described a 15 week graduate program for teachers, delivered first at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and later at Teachers College Columbia, that focused on helping educators understand how to support adult learning and capacity building, including the results of longitudinal research about the program’s impact.
The course (and later graduate action) was structured around a learning-oriented model for school leadership developed by Drago-Severson (Drago-Severson et al., 2013). The model, based on constructive-developmental theory and “composed of four pillar practices—that is, teaming , providing leadership roles, engaging in collegial inquiry (CI) , and mentoring —helped leaders learn about and experience the kinds of practices that actually support adult growth, and why ” (Drago-Severson et al., 2013, p. 11). Course content and processes included:
- Conceptions of leadership in support of adult learning and development
- Constructive-developmental theory
- Essential elements for enhancing schools, systems, and workplaces to be even healthier learning environments for adults
- Practices that support adults’ transformational learning (e.g., teaming, assuming leadership roles, collegial inquiry, and mentoring), as well as the developmental principles informing them
- The importance of caring for one’s own development and learning while caring for the learning of others. (Drago-Severson et al., 2013, pp. 12-13)
Drago-Severson et al. (2013, p. 13) emphasized:
It is important to note that in addition to teaching about developmental theory and practices that can be employed to support adult growth, we sought in LTL to establish and model the conditions for supporting adult learning and development so that the learners could experience the practices that support growth while they were learning about them.
Drago-Severson et al. (2013, p. 158) provided details on how leaders use developmental practices and ideas learned during LTL, including discrete examples of “(a) establishing and nourishing the preconditions for developmentally oriented leadership, (b) implementing and adapting the four pillar practices for growth….and (c) differentiating supports and challenges within the pillars to support adults with diverse ways of knowing.” They also incorporated research findings from the graduates that detailed approaches and practices they adopted in school systems in subsequent years.
Reading about the Leadership for Transformational Program (Drago-Severson et al.
- provides a window into practices that not only help individual adults grow and develop, but also contribute to the growth of a community – in this case a cohort of students. Because the students were in fact teachers, we also gain glimpses of the program’s impact within a wider community.
An Organizational Perspective
Adults spend countless hours each day in the workplace—in communities of their fellows. One wonders how might they develop if the policies and practices of these workplaces were designed to enhance or enable their progress. Certainly, increasing awareness of development processes and being in a conducive climate for growth may be precursors for individuals deciding to take on developmental tasks.
One option for organizational leaders wishing to foster adult development is to create a development organization —where emphases on productivity and development are intertwined (Morris & Klunk, 2016)—which “consciously and intentionally transforms itself through supporting and encouraging the development of its members, who in turn consciously transform the organization, enabling it to meet its strategic goals” (Morris, 1997, p. 53). Morris described implementation of a competency-based framework for
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