https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/36593 2026-04-10T16:05:57Z 2026-04-10T16:05:57Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/113399 2023-10-02T12:42:25Z 1998-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Critical pedagogy and predatory culture : oppositional politics in a postmodern era [Book review] Abstract: This book demystifies the predatory elements of an education process that claims to be neutral. It also disturbs the educator who considers his/her role within the education process as a transmitter of knowledge and moulder of values and attitudes. This is a book that will disappoint the how-to freak. On the other hand, it should excite those educators who are refusing to be deskilled by education systems that are becoming increasingly keen on pushing competency-based curricula. By writing simultaneously about the hegemonic and liberatory potential of curricula, McLaren constantly challenges the reader to position him/herself politically. Readers are asked to choose from, on one hand, participation in an educational process that is oblivious to the fact that curricula select, privilege, support, and reproduce hegemonic forms of knowledge, visions and experiences and, on the other hand, an educational experience that centres around the notion of curriculum as a site of contestation. The latter scenario provides educators and students with the possibility of questioning, problematising, countering and transforming predatory culture.

1998-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/113364 2023-10-02T06:24:48Z 1998-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Inside/Outside Schools: Towards a Critical Sociology of Education in Malta [Book review] Abstract: I would like to share my reactions to this collection of readings by referring to my experience of schools and education in Malta. In recent years, I have made three visits to the islands as an external examiner, going to about 50 classrooms in 30 state and non-state schools to observe student-teachers in action. What has struck me during these visits is the warmth, generosity and vitality of the Maltese people, the richness of Malta's cultural heritage reflected in its language, buildings, towns and villages, customs, and traditions. Despite the obvious changes the islands are going through, there is a stable Catholicism which permeates many aspects of people's lives. For some it underpins faith and beliefs; for others it may simply be a taken for granted part of the culture.

1998-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/113359 2023-09-29T11:10:50Z 1998-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Education des Adultes: Inclusion et Exclusion. Manifeste pour une Democratie Internationale [Book review] Abstract: In my workshops for adult educators, I sometimes ask participants to tell me 'something that they know is true'. The question raises the issue of how we construct knowledge, and of the mechanisms that we use to validate that knowledge. What causes me to 'know', for example, that today is Tuesday and not Wednesday? Are my beliefs based on perceptible evidence, on social convention, or some edifice of reasoned deduction? ls there a difference between these various types of knowledge, and if so, what is the nature of that difference? Of course, an important characteristic of 'knowing' is that not everyone agrees so readily about most things as they do about naming the day of the week. The world is too complex to be reduced to a single set of interpretations, and we must rely on our individual subjective understanding in order to negotiate the complexities of everyday life. Similarly, the act of learning is dependent on our ability to make sense of the infinite variety of stimuli that make up the realm of our perception. To achieve this remarkable feat, we need to engage in the collective act of knowledge-building, for there is nothing of value that we can know alone.

1998-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/113358 2023-09-29T11:06:15Z 1998-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Capitalism in the age of globalization [Book review] Abstract: The collapsing of the welfare state in Europe; the debunking of Marxism-Leninism after the collapse of the Soviet bloc; the failure of alternative, often state-led, third world development leading to fiscal crises and necessitating interventionist 'structural adjustment programmes' by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund ... today the triumph of neo-liberalism appears well nigh secured. The ideology of 'freedom to' has gripped political discourse and has become synonymous with socio-economic development. Its economic handmaiden is free trade. The correspondent and supportive ideological stance to this regime is a rational vision of the world: the problems of poverty and stagnation are only transitional or marginal; wealth and progress will trickle down later if not sooner; and any residual difficulties will be overwhelmed by effective managerialist solutions. Fukuyama (1992) represents the textbook of this contemporary bravado. Democracy begets liberal capitalism which begets progress and modernity. There is, simply, no other way. In Fukuyama's own captivating metaphor, motley and different though they may be; all the wagon trains labouring along the trail in the search for progress will ultimately converge to this ultimate safe haven.

1998-01-01T00:00:00Z