https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/53206 Sat, 04 Apr 2026 19:49:53 GMT 2026-04-04T19:49:53Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/53173 Title: Ronald G. Sultana, Education and national development : historical and critical perspectives on vocational schooling in Malta [book review] Abstract: This is a most impressive study of the historical, social, political, and economic issues related to vocational schooling. While its title may perhaps suggest a book of mainly local interest, it provides in fact a sustained analysis and critique of vocational schooling that should be studied with close attention much further afield. Fri, 01 Jan 1993 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/53173 1993-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/53160 Title: Social class in Malta : insights into a homegrown relationship with special reference to education Authors: Baldacchino, Godfrey Abstract: The economic and occupational map of contemporary Malta has encouraged strident, though unsupported, declarations that "we are all middle class now"; whereas a number of academics continue to suggest rigid configurations of conventional class categories and hierarchies. While the fundamental relevance of the social class concept and explanatory value in social analysis is nowadays questioned, one has yet to assess whether the Maltese socioeconomic formation and the experiences of production, distribution and exchange warrant an idiosyncratic, locale-specific, interpretation of social class. In other words, is a home grown theoretical framework for social class in Malta justifiable? Regretfully, a serious study which would work out inductively, from empirical data, a social class topography for contemporary Malta has yet to materialize. This article will nevertheless seek to serve as a further tentative inroad into research on social class in Malta, mainly on the basis of statistical and secondary data, plus some theoretical, albeit admittedly armchair, considerations where there is a dearth of other knowledge. It will propose an emergent, working definition of social class perhaps more sensitive to, and therefore sensible in, the Maltese context. Finally, it will also indicate some of the implications which may result from such new approaches to an otherwise hackneyed theme, using education as the referent. Fri, 01 Jan 1993 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/53160 1993-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/53159 Title: The parent as 'subject' : beyond liberal discourse in parental involvement in early childhood education Authors: Borg, Carmel Abstract: There is a growing trend towards parental involvement programmes in early childhood education. In most of the programmes, the major objective is to enhance the parents' ability to facilitate their children's development, particularly where the conditions for 'normal' development are found wanting, This reformist trend is reviewed in the first part of this article. In the second part, the review will serve as a backdrop to a critique of liberal discourse in parental involvement, leading to a reconceptualization of the issue. The argument carried through this article is that the notion of parental involvement is central to the process of democratic control, and therefore needs to be grounded in a political project that engenders personal and social empowerment of parents. Such a project demands a pedagogy that recognizes the different voices, know ledges and identities that constitute the parental body; a pedagogy that is fully cognizant of the fact that parents differ in terms of location, cultural capital, habitus, and personal experience within the education system. In other words, there are parents who have benefited from the social relations that characterize mainstream schooling and others, perhaps the majority, that have experienced a sense of powerlessness. It is the latter category of parents that the project for parental involvement in question will mostly address. By adopting a language of critique, traditionally disenfranchised parents will dig into the past to reclaim their personal, class and gender history in order to subjectively under- stand why conservative and liberal discourse in education has failed them, with a view that they will eventually embark on a project of possibility that will not only promote equal partnership but also substantial transformation in the educational process itself. Fri, 01 Jan 1993 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/53159 1993-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/53158 Title: Disability and special education needs : some perennial European concerns Authors: Barton, Len Abstract: In this brief paper I propose to first, offer some opening remarks including my reasons for personal involvement in this particular field of study. Secondly, I will identify some key issues relating to disability which European societies are struggling with. Finally, I will make some concluding remarks. In this paper I have been very selective over the issues I will attempt to briefly examine. Please do not see this as implying that I do not feel equally passionate about other issues such as parental participation. I do not want to give the impression that European societies have effectively engaged with these issues and all that is necessary is to emulate them. Nothing could be further from the truth. These are some key concerns that are being struggled over. Thus all European societies are open to criticism on each of these issues. Finally, educational issues, and disability is no exception, are complex, contradictory and contentious. This topic, therefore, raises the most fundamental questions and values. The process of engagement is thus both exciting and disturbing. Fri, 01 Jan 1993 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/53158 1993-01-01T00:00:00Z