Education and Adaptive Capacity

Drawing on evolutionary theory, adaptive capacity is defined in terms of those characteristics which maximize variation and selective retention in individuals and social systems. Utilizing a wide range of concepts which have appeared in the psychological and sociological literature, this paper seeks to identify the major components of variation and selective retention in the adaptive functioning of individuals. In addition, it examines the relationship between education and each of the components of individual adaptive capacity. Finally, again using the educational system as an illustration, it considers the parallel to the adaptive functioning of social systems and the interdependence between the individual and social system levels in terms of the major components of variation and selective retention. RECENT LITERATURE HAS suggested that education increases or should increase adaptability to change (Clark, 1962; Gardner, 1963: 26; Goslin, 1965; Harvey, et al., 1961:340-345). Research on this topic is extremely scarce, and there has been very little theoretical development in conceptualizing adaptability. In this paper we plan to do three things: 1) to map out conceptually some of the major dimensions of adaptive capacity drawing on a wide range of sociological and psychological literature; 2) to indicate how education may be related to an individual's adaptive capacity; and 3) to extend the argument to consider briefly the adaptive functioning of social systems.