Ronald G. SULTANA (editor) (2001) Yesterday's Schools: Readings in Maltese Educational
History. Malta: PEG; ISBN: 99909-0-302-6 (pbk); 286 + xxviii pages; 104 illustrations (b&w).
Lm8.00.

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This book focuses on significant events, epochs and individuals that have made an impact on the formation of Maltaís educational system. Adopting both a chronological and problem-oriented approach to history, the volume covers educational provision from the late Middle Ages to the more recent experiments with comprehensive education and inclusion. While setting out to push the frontiers of substantive knowledge about Maltaís educational history, the volume privileges analysis over description, drawing on a wide range of historical methods, from archival research to life history.

CONTENTS

Preface Malta's educational history: past, present ? what future? / Ronald G. Sultana; Chapter 1 Education in Malta before the Knights / Charles Dalli; Chapter 2 Education in Hospitaller Malta / Carmel Cassar; Chapter 3 The Collegium Melitense and the Universitas Studiorum to 1798 / Stanley Fiorini; Chapter 4 Napoleonís vision for education in Malta / Carmel Testa; Chapter 5 Technical and vocational education in 19th century Malta / Ronald G.
Sultana; Chapter 6  Paolo Pullicinoís educational legacy / Joseph J. Camilleri; Chapter 7 Shifting the colonial frontier: the colonial state, schooling and Maltese society, 1814-1914 / John Chircop; Chapter 8 The Language Question and education: a political controversy on a linguistic topic / Joseph M. Brincat; Chapter 9 A village school in Malta: Mosta Primary School 1840?1940 / George Cassar; Chapter 10 A.V. Laferla and education: a post-colonial approach /
Josienne Said; Chapter 11 Meeting the diversity of student needs: the development of policy and provisions for the education of children with disability in Malta / Paul A. Bartolo; Chapter 12 Why education 'counts': educational trajectories and personal histories / Josephine Ann Cutajar; Chapter 13 The ideological struggle over comprehensive education in Malta / Desmond Zammit Marmarà.

Advance praise for the volume:

"Historical and comparative approaches have returned with a vengeance to the educational scene. More than ever we feel the need to learn the profound historicity of educational realities and to find our place in a world made up of multiple identities. History and comparison open our vision, enabling us to ask original questions, to search for different meanings and to imagine new possibilities. The book edited by Ronald G. Sultana is part of this movement showing a fresh interest in history. It is an instructive and thought-provoking book with many excellent chapters, and will undoubtedly prove to be an
important tool for students and teachers at national level, as well as for international historians and scholars of comparative education."
António Nóvoa - Professor of History of Education, University of Lisbon
Chair of the International Standing Conference for the History of Education

"This pioneering volume, commissioned and edited by Ronald G. Sultana, is most welcome. The chapters in the collection demonstrate high levels of scholarship and of sophistication. This book will serve not only as an introduction to the rich variety of Maltaís educational history but also as an inspiration and example for further studies."
Richard Aldrich - Professor of History of Education, Institute of Education, University of London

"Maltaís strategic geographic location has made it subject historically to many divergent political and cultural influences.
This very welcome volume comprises a sequence of well-researched chapters that examine such influences on key eras of
Maltese education, from medieval to more recent times. The authors' insightful and very readable analyses make it a
particularly valuable work for all Maltese with an interest in their educational traditions. However, the work also deserves a
wider readership among educational historians and comparative educationalists."
John Coolahan - Professor of History of Education, National University of Ireland, Maynooth

"This is a fascinating set of original papers that is a major contribution to a deeper understanding not only of the historical experience of Maltese education, but of education, schooling and teachers in Malta today."
Gary McCulloch - Professor of History of Education, Sheffield University
Editor of the international journal History of Education