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Central Schools in New South Wales administratively combine primary and secondary schools on a single site. They are normally located in small, relatively isolated, rural communities. In the Western Region of the NSW Department of Education there are 19 Central Schools varying in size from 88 to 557 students. At the time of this study eight of the Central Schools catered for students from kindergarten to Year 12, the remaining eleven catered for kindergarten to Year 10.In 1987/88 Mitchell CAE, in collaboration with the Department of Education in the Western Region, undertook a major research study into the perceptions of Central Schools held by those most closely involved (Sinclair 1988). Prior to the study much of the knowledge of how Central Schools were perceived was anecdotal and impressionistic. This study aimed at gathering comparative data from all Western Region Central Schools about how those who taught, studied, or sent their children there perceived the quality of education provided by Central Schools.

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Study abroad programmes for teacher education students are increasingly being evaluated to determine their effectiveness in achieving intended outcomes. There is a danger, however, that such evaluations will ignore valuable but unintended and serendipitous outcomes of such programmes. This paper investigates an example of such an outcome, the development of a critical perspective towards media constructions of 'otherness'. In 2002 a group of Australian teacher education students undertook an intensive in-country Indonesian language programme. The course included mornings of formal immersion language classes and afternoons of cultural experiences with local students. Throughout and following the programme the students were interviewed and wrote about their changing perceptions of Indonesia and the implications of the experience for their professional development. Soon after their return Indonesian-Australian relations were challenged by the terrorist attack in the tourist heart of Bali. Two hundred and two people, including many Australian tourists, were killed in the bomb blast. In some cases the students were personally acquainted with Australian victims. As part of their reflection upon their in-country experience the students were asked to comment upon whether, and in what ways, the Bali bombings might have affected their perceptions of Indonesia. The students were highly critical of the ethnocentric and stereotyped way in which the Australian media depicted Indonesians in their reporting of the bombing. These students were concerned with the effect that such media constructions might have upon Australian attitudes towards Indonesia and were prepared to challenge such media constructions in the classroom.

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The Problem. Current crises such as the global financial meltdown, disparate distribution of income, growing economic inequalities, business and government complicity in favoring an economic elite, war on the middle class, and oppressive market behaviors have been linked to corporate and business practices, with little resistance from the academy, including the field of human resource development (HRD). In fact, HRD has been portrayed by some as collusive. Recent arguments suggest that critical HRD can recalibrate this equation. This article interrogates whether adding criticality to HRD can be an antidote to such complicity, that is, can it be a mithridate? The Solution. Rather than baptize HRD in the waters of criticality, where HRD remains the center of gravity with critical theory merely informing it, this article proposes that a transdisciplinary approach has the potential to offer more effective interventions in the current crises. Transdisciplinarity, the space between the disciplines of HRD and critical theory, may open up a unity of knowledge beyond the canonical borders of either field, yielding a new holism with important implications for practice. The Stakeholders. HR and OD professionals, adult educators, cultural critics.

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