Let me dream! : transforming educational futures

The issue of underachievement in education has preoccupied educators over the past century at least. And yet, there has been little progress made in addressing the problem, to the extent that large groups of students fail to flourish intellectual in a school by environment. Moreover, whether we are looking, at the United States, Europe, or Asia the groups of students who underachieve and who drop out of the educational enterprise have a similar identify. They generally share one or more of the following aspirations: namely, they have what can be broadly called a working class background, are migrants or children of migrants, and/or come from an ethnic "minority" background. The report I will be critically engaging with in this paper, namely To Learn More than I have: The Educational Aspirations and Experiences of the Maltese in Melbourne (Terry, Borland & Adams, 1993) looks squarely in the face of these facts. reflecting on the issue as it applies to one particular group of students who underinvest in education, namely chil- dren of Maltese migrants. What I will attempt to do in this paper is to weave a narrative, drawing on the Terry et al. study as well as on my own research and experiences in education, to make sense of the lived realities of this group of people. Needless to say, this is in my ways my story, my interpretation, informed as it might be by many interaction with people and ideas. I cannot claim to represent the voices of the subjects we are considering, namely Maltese background children in Melbourne. That would not only be pretentious, but undignified. All that I can offer are some critical reflections which could be of some use to the Maltese community in Victoria as they seek to empower themselves and their children.peer-reviewe

Career guidance for social justice

This editorial sets the context for issue 36 of the NICEC journal which is focused on social justice and career guidance. The editorial explores the key themes of the issue highlighting the social justice tradition within the career guidance field and making the case for a strong focus on social justice. However the editorial also highlights the tensions that exist between career guidance’s orientation to the individual and understandings of social justice which are more socially orientated. The editorial concludes by arguing that if career guidance is to formulate a meaningful response to social injustice it needs to draw on diverse theoretical traditions and stimulate new forms of practice

Critical discourses on teacher development

As a teacher educator and a sociologist of education, I have been struggling for some years now to bring the insights developed by the latter field to bear on my work within universities and on that of my students, teachers-to-be. This has not been an easy task for a number of inter-related reasons. In the first place, the brand of sociology and educational theory which inspires much of my work, namely critical theory, is notorious for the level of abstraction at which it works, and the often convoluted and obscure language in which it is expressed. Student-teachers trying to make connections between theory and practice find many of the readings available on the subject hard to understand, let alone to apply to the challenging situations they encounter in the classrooms. In the second place, critical theory and education often address a metaphysical level in their insistence on the emancipatory potential of engaging with the world as it is, in order to imagine and bring about a world as it could and should be. The normative dimension to the task of teaching is of course crucial if one is to challenge the increasingly technocratic view that is being promoted for schooling world-wide. It does, however, raise important questions such as 'Are schools the best places to promote emancipatory rationality?' and, even more centrally in terms of the concerns of this book, 'Can teachers be expected to participate in this emancipatory venture, given their social class location and the constraints of the cultural terrain in which they must carry out their work?' In other words, how can a teacher-educator ask student-teachers to consider schools as sites for liberation, when changes in the social and bureaucratic status quo may ultimately work against the interests of this particular group of professionals? In the third place, much that has emerged from the critical theory tradition has appealed to the individual level of consciousness-raising, and hence depends on the notion of 'conversion' to points of views which, while leading to a disposition to act truly and rightly (phronesis), nevertheless are short on a consideration of strategies for the mobilization of resources and people so that the desired state of affairs does in fact come about. Quite a number of students following my courses on critical education are seduced by the invitation to become reflective practitioners with a commitment to promoting justice and equality, but even the most dedicated among them are culturally, if not ideologically, incorporated in the centralized, exam-oriented bureaucratic school system that is to be found in Malta as in many other countries. The heightened consciousness that critical teachers have of their role in the perpetration of symbolic violence in schools can in fact lead to an even deeper sense of frustration and despair, rather than to the transformation of people, situations and structures. This paper will give a brief overview of the curricular, theoretical and political ways in which I have attempted to tackle the three challenges posed by critical theory to teacher educators as outlined above. In other words, the question this article will address -:- though, of course, not fully answer - is the following: How can critical education be taught in such a way that it is understandable, theoretically and practically appealing, and politically effective?peer-reviewe

Conceptualising teachers’ work in a uniting Europe

In this article I would like to situate teachers' work-defined, following Ozga & Lawn (1988), in terms of the labour and social process of teaching-within wider economic, political and cultural contexts. The reference to "a uniting Europe" in the title of this article links in with my current research agenda in response to my country's application to join the European Union. Despite this specificity, I will argue that the European context which defines the work of close to 5 million teachers (Andrieu, 1992) is not that different from other contexts, be these North American or Australian. Such a claim is possible given the overwhelming evidence of what Giddens (1989) refers to as the "globalizing of social life", where we can now speak of "forms of social association which span the earth". "The world", argues Giddens, "has become in important respects a single social system, as a result of ties of interdependence which now virtually affect everyone. The global system is not just an environment within which particular societies .. . develop and change. The social, political and economic connections which cross-cut borders between countries decisively condition the fate of those living within each of them" (Giddens, 1989, pp. 519-520).peer-reviewe

Developing a vision for teacher education programmes : a values-based approach

This article presents one approach to the development of initial teacher education programmes that are based on a vision, premissed on values shared consensually by faculty staff and students. The article first provides a brief historical background of the Faculty of Education at the University of Malta, where this values-based approach was attempted. It addresses some of the key problems faced in the development of a coherent and organic course of studies with students following graduate and post-graduate courses, and gives an account of the way some of these problems were addressed. It is claimed that the approach adopted at the University of Malta can help other teacher educators in clarifying objectives as they set out to create coherent programmes that provide a sense of mission based on identifiable values and principles.peer-reviewe

Competence and competence frameworks in career guidance : complex and contested concepts

This paper considers some of the debates surrounding the term competence and the relevance that these have for the development of competence frameworks. Such frameworks are increasingly on the agenda, since they purport to support training programme development, to identify competence gaps, to promote self-development, and to ensure common standards. This paper shows, however, that notions of competence have specific meanings in particular contexts, that they have been contested, and that they have fallen into and out of favour over time. The paper concludes by teasing out the implications that competing definitions of competence have for the guidance field.peer-reviewe

An EMIS for Palestine : the education management information system in the West Bank and Gaza Strip

This article provides an account of the introduction of an Education Management and Information System in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The initiative, led by the Palestinian Ministry of Education, and supported by UNICEF, is described in terms of the educational goals targeted, the usefulness of an EMIS for the rational organization and management of an educational system, and the impact that the availability and sound use of data can have on improving quality provision. The particular political and educational circumstances of Palestine up to the start of the second Intifada in September 2000 are described in some detail in order to better highlight the challenges that had to be faced by the Ministry of Education, and to appreciate more thoroughly the extent of the successes achieved against the odds.peer-reviewe

Caring for future generations : an inter-religious Mediterranean educational agenda

Describes a project by representatives from three monotheistic religions from around the Mediterranean to produce a teaching text to help adolescents learn about and reflect on the knowledge and beliefs of the three Abrahamic religions, promoting UNESCO values regarding the responsibilities of current generations toward future generations. Examines challenges faced, issues of language and communication, teaching goals, and pedagogical/representational toolspeer-reviewe

Personal and social education : curriculum innovation and school bureaucracies in Malta

The rationale behind a personal and social education (PSE) initiative coordinated by the author in Malta’ is critically reviewed. The social context for the emergence of PSE in a number of countries is compared and contrasted, linking this ‘new’ development with issues of legitimation on the one hand, and problems posed by bureaucratic school structures on the other. Some of the normative dilemmas with PSE are explored, notably its tendency to reduce ‘education’ to a technocratic focus on the development and learning of skills. It is suggested that there is a danger that PSE could become yet another compensatory divide which reinforces the social-control function of schools, but that this can be averted if there is a creative rapprochement between two disparate educational perspectives, namely humanistic education and critical theory pedagogy. The convergence of the two approaches would ensure that both the personal and the political goals of a true education would be achieved.peer-reviewe

Social movements and the transformation of teachers work : case studies from New Zealand

The major aim of this article is to explore the potential of teachers as transformative agents within schools. The study first looks at theoretical perspectives which analyse both the class location of teachers as well as the kinds of relationships and structural constraints into which they enter- both in their pre-service training, and throughout their work as teachers. The paper then presents ethnographic data to argue that despite the overwhelming and hegemonic restraints on teachers, when they, individually andlor collectively, are inspired by social movements outside of the school, then total institutional and ideological incorporation is less likely to take place. Case studies are presented to illustrate how such politicized teachers and schools struggle to establish a space in favour of progressive and democratic agendas .peer-reviewe