Knowledge Management for Adult and Higher Education: Mapping the Recent Literature

The recent literature shows that the field of knowledge management (KM) has a potential importance for the education area. It has been argued that KM concepts, models, and practices may be beneficial to teachers, learners, and university managers. An open issue, however, is whether and how the research and practice in these two distinct fields—education and KM—are really converging. This chapter proposes a systematic analysis of the literature to shed light onto the intersection between the fields of KM and adult and higher education. The main research trends are detected and highlighted. The analysis shows that there are promising applications of KM to higher education and university management. However, there is still the need to carry out more theoretical or applicative research with the purpose to facilitate the effective incorporation of KM notions, concepts, or practices into the education field.