Human resource development (HRD) as a scholarly endeavor and as a practice is often criticized in the adult education (AE) literature and byAEscholars as manipulative and oppressive and, through training and other interventions, controlling workers for strictly economic ends (Baptiste, 2001; Cunningham, 2004; Schied, 2001; Welton, 1995). Similarly, although less vocal and antagonistic,HRDscholars have been critical ofAE’s ‘academic’ and ‘theoretical’ elitism vs. the pragmatic and socially responsive practice ofAE. To address the tension resulting from the lack of harmony between the disciplinary conceptual foundations that exists betweenHRDandAE, and assuming this tension results in a lack of understanding and possible beneficial cooperation, we propose that critical traditions (critical theory and criticality) may provide a bridge between the two disciplines. To fully define and provide support for this proposition, this paper is divided into and presented in two parts.
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