Suchergebnisse

As we have argued earlier, education is one among a number of features of a social formation that can contribute to human development. The UNDP articulates the latter in terms of creating 'an enabling environment for people to enjoy long, healthy and creative lives', widening'~ people's choices and increasing the level of their achieved well-being. Together with health care, political freedom, guaranteed human rights and self-respect, education figures highly as a contributing element to the fulfillment of these aspirations. The UNDP significantly distances itself from other approaches that purport to explain the linkage between education and human development. The most notable of these approaches is the human capital theory, which was pioneered in the post-war period by a number of economists such as Nobel prize-winner TW Schultz, Peter Drucker and BA Weisbrod. For a long period of time, this approach was promoted by such development agencies as the World Bank. Human capital theory, or theories of human resource development as it is now increasingly referred to, tends to look at people as a means to an end, that is in terms of their capacity to increase production. It treats education as an industry which generates the desired amounts of functional manpower. Consequently, the development of educated and skilled people, their number, quality and utilisation, is considered to be the most significant index of the wealth-production capacity of a country. The implications of this is that education will produce individuals with an increased general and job-specific knowledge which they subsequently can apply in an expanding economy, both to better utilise new technical developments and to generate innovations. The result is a marked pay-off in terms of increased production, yielding greater national wealth, corporate profits and individual wages. For the purpose of this report it is crucial to understand the distinction between views of education and development promoted by the United Nations Development Programme on the one hand, and those of the World Bank (to mention only one of the more important agencies) on the other. This understanding is particularly important given the fact that, irrespective of the differing political views of various governments, human capital theory approaches have been very influential in Malta from the post-war period to the present day. This is evident in the various development plans that closely link education with economic progress. The change in name from Ministry of Education, Culture and Environment to Ministry of Education and Human Resources after the 1992 General Elections merely serves to highlight and make more explicit the assumed link between education and the economy, where the former is considered to be a key partner in sustaining, even leading the latter by the best development of human potential. The change in nomenclature for the portfolio represents a formal marriage between education and development, a union which had in fact been consummated much earlier as Malta strove to become not only politically, but also economically self-reliant. The influence of Thomas Balogh in the promotion of human capital theory in Malta and other British colonies and several nations on the African continent needs to be underlined in this context. The different approach to education and development promoted by the UNDP is useful because it helps one distinguish between quantitative and qualitative issues in educational provision. It leads the basic question as to the manner in which educational expansion increased the well-being of citizens. Of course, the quantitative dimension of the question is rather more easily addressed, given that 'all' it requires is a set of numeric parameters to measure the trends and direction in the delivery of the service. The qualitative dimension, indexed by the woolly phrase 'well-being of people', is much more subjective and less amenable to measurement. This does not make it in any way less important. Indeed, the treatment of people as 'human capital', as units that contribute to production, obfuscates and mystifies the relationship that exists between education and production on the one hand, and domination and exploitation on the other. Indeed, research has tended to show that rather than leading to human well-being, education systems are directly involved in selecting and stratifying people - often on criteria that have more to do with class, race, and gender than 'objective' intellectual ability - and then channeling particular categories of students towards specific locations in a segmented labour market. While some of these segments are characterised by work conditions and remuneration that lead to healthy, creative life-styles, others are not. Schools are, thus, directly involved in the 'cooling out' of groups of students who are thus channeled towards the less lucrative and fulfilling sectors in the economy. There are those who claim that education systems are predicated on a logic of success for some, and failure for others. For, if an educator's dream that all students successfully complete a course of study were to come true, how would society be able to select, park and store all these students in the job hierarchy? This explains why a number of Maltese educational sociologists in the post-war period have consistently argued that education systems should be considered systems of violence rather more than of development. This report gives an overview of both the quantitative and qualitative growth in education provision, raises issues and draw conclusions related to the problematic relationship between both. This is particularly important not only in terms of the exercise of providing the education component of the human development index, but also because current official discourse in the field of educational development and policy making is steeped in quantitative rather than qualitative considerations, a point that has been made by the Minister of Education and Human Resources Consultative Body's report Tomorrow's Schools: Developing Effective Learning Cultures. ; peer-reviewed

In the national report it prepared for the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing (1995), the Maltese Commission for the Advancement of Women wrote that the main objective of the Maltese state is to promote education and instruction and to ensure the existence of a system of schools and institutions accessible to all Maltese citizens catering for the full development of the whole personality including the ability of every person to work (Commission, 1994, 32). In the Maltese Islands, legal and institutional impediments have been legislatively removed, so to say, to enable equal access to educational resources. Wrench (1992), however, points out that practices which might be perceived as equal in their application often turn out to be discriminatory in their effect. My objective in this paper is to find out how educational practices might be discriminatory, for whom and on what basis, within the Maltese Islands. My main concern is in finding out how girls and women, as well as individuals deriving from the Gozitan ethnic group, are faring within the Maltese educational system. My objective in analyzing Maltese educational policies and practices is to render visible those ideological conditions which both stimulate and legitimize discriminatory practices (Essed, 1991, 166). ; peer-reviewed

This paper aims at presenting an account of recent developments in inclusive education policy, discourse and practice in Malta. The inclusion initiative is placed within the opposite context of competitive and streaming practices prevalent in the Maltese education system. A brief account is given of how inclusive policy and practice have been influenced by the following: United Nations policies; local political developments; the setting up and activities of parent associations and a National Commission for Persons with Disability; and the action for persons with developmental disabilities of an effective Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), The recent development of a National Minimum Curriculum (NMC) with a wide consensus intended to ensure a quality education for all is seen as a very hopeful context for the achievement of inclusive education in Malta. A critical account of current perceptions, practices, concerns and aspirations for inclusive education in Malta is provided through a review of the very recent report of the Working Group on Inclusive Education set up as part of the strategy for the implementation of the NMC over the next five years. ; peer-reviewed

The rise of a new ethos of political self-reliance and the continuing quest among Maltese leaders and nationals to bring about a full measure of independence within the shortest period of time, has made it mandatory that the Maltese, despite the smallness of their size and the meagre resources available on the island, should establish institutions that could carry this national ethos through the wake of international bureaucracy and structures. Although Maltese culture is in many ways not a-typical of its Mediterranean counterparts, Maltese life in general is significantly different from that of other, even larger, islands in the Mediterranean such as Cyprus, Crete or nearby Sicily. Malta is not only an island; it is a nation, and, despite its smallness and a long history of colonization, it has finally come to be accepted as such. As a result, some structural features of the Maltese community, though they could easily be considered a luxury by superficial observers of the local scene, play an essential role in Malta's existence. As such, Malta has to be served by a national airline, it sustains fully fletched banking and financial institutions, it maintains a quite intricate network of foreign representations and diplomatic corps, it issues its own currency, and, not least from the cultural point of view, it nurtures an indigenous language. ; N/A

Ph.D.(Melit.) ; Governing and managing a higher education institution is complex, laborious and dynamic. The way in which governing bodies, academic units, regulatory units and management support units may possibly be compared to an engine that needs to be well-oiled to help institutions operate in the best possible manner. If any part of the engine is not functioning properly, the engine will stop working and could possibly bring everything to a halt. Institutional governance and management function in a similar manner helping institutions to perform efficiently and effectively. Ensuring an effective interlink between context, strategy, governance and management is extremely challenging given that the context changes rapidly, at times faster than the way in which institutions change their governing arrangements and management support. This interlink is further complicated with the influence that external stakeholders have on higher education institutions (HEIs). HEIs deal with a multitude of stakeholders through a dynamic multi-level agency model. This scenario entails that HEIs face tensions and limitations to implement their respective strategies and to perform at a national level and on an international platform. Achieving national and international results entails the coordination of policy frameworks in a continuum of policy areas. The challenge is to capture in a pictorial, factual and practical way a dynamic spheres of governance and management that is triggered by a minor initiative within institutions and ends at achieving national performance indicators. Therefore, this thesis goes beyond the theoretical notion of intertwining governance with management. It seeks details and practice. Performance indicators are to be used with caution and within the background of a series of governing and management institutional initiatives that are not necessarily measured. The universal development of these mentioned models is tested and applied in the laboratory of two main public HEIs: UM and MCAST, in the context of a small island state. The doctoral research provides a detailed analysis of Malta's higher education governance and management at an institutional level within a national perspective. ; N/A

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. ; N/A

Examines Malta's history of higher education, discussing: the relationship between Malta's socioeconomic and political history and educational development; Malta's system of higher education; notable reforms and counter-reforms; and implications of expansion (rapid increases in student enrollment, the boom of a graduate labor supply, and changes in quality and quantity of graduate students on the labor market) ; peer-reviewed

Late-life learning is no longer an exotic terrain within the field of adult education. Older adults are not only participating in lifelong learning avenues in increasing numbers, but recent decades also witnessed the emergence of learning opportunities targeting specifically older cohorts. In Malta, the government not only communicates its support to late-life learning, but also put forward agefriendly policies that facilitate the inclusion of older adults in learning programmes. This paper conducts a critical overview of the Maltese experience in older adult learning, analysing both its guiding rationale and participation rates. It notes that late-life learning in Malta occurs in the absence of a national policy framework that directs and supports the efforts of formal and non-formal bodies in providing learning opportunities for older persons. The paper also proposes an agenda for the late-life learning based on the values of social justice, social levelling and social cohesion. ; peer-reviewed

In this article I will first set out to problematise our common sense assumptions about the notion of "ability", on which subsequent defmitions of "achievement" at school are based. I will argue that this kind of critical reflection on the submerged theories we operate with is crucial, for it is through a better understanding of what we are about in schools and classrooms that we can best serve the interests of those entrusted in our care. The categorisation of pupils as "high achievers", "low achievers" , and "under achievers" depends on particular views of intelligence and ability, which have developed over time and which conceal political and economic ideologies that are often not immediately available to us for critique. Nevertheless, these views of the world, of the place of the school within thls world, and of the relative worth of different groups of children therein, have an extraordinarily powerful influence on the way we think and act, and therefore need to be unpacked. Otherwise, we risk perpetrating injustices on those we claim to represent. Having delved into the political etymology of the concept "ability", we will then explore what it is that can be done to interact more effectively with those who do not fulfill their potential in the school context. ; peer-reviewed

The University of Malta set up the first full-time course with a conservation theme in 1996, when an MSc in Conservation Technology for Masonry Buildings was organised by the then Institute for Masonry and Construction Research - now integrated within the Faculty for the Built Environment as the Department of the Built Heritage. This course, which is still being held on a biennial basis, is mostly (but not only) attended by young Architects and Civil Engineers who wish to work on building conservation. In 1999, the first hands-on courses in conservation started in Malta - run by the then Malta Centre for Restoration. These courses were divided into four areas, and covered most Cultural Heritage objects, ranging from books to textiles, from canvas paintings to archaeological artefacts. Once the Centre was absorbed into the National heritage agency, Heritage Malta, these undergraduate courses (Bachelor in Conservation and Restoration Studies [Honours)) continued to be run by this organization in strict collaboration with the University of Malta. As of October 2010, all of these courses have fallen under the direct care of the Department of the Built Heritage. The changing needs of the conservation world, both in Malta and abroad, the small numbers of students subscribing to the hands-on courses, the recommendations of ENCoRE, and the restructuring of undergraduate engineering and architecture course of studies led to a recent re-thinking of these conservation courses. Changes are being designed in the case of both courses, which are giving rise to some challenges and a great deal of opportunities. These changes include a revision of the MSc in Conservation Technology for Masonry Buildings, also in the light of structural changes taking place at undergraduate and postgraduate levels within the Faculty for the Built Environment, which lead to the creation of a number of professional and specialisation Masters courses. Even more fundamental are the changes taking place with regards to educating hands-on Conservators. As of October 2012, this training will only take place in Malta at a Masters (MSc) level. The first course will lead to an MSc in the Conservation of Decorative Architectural Surfaces, which will be open to graduates, both Maltese and foreign, from a large number of undergraduate degrees, both in the Sciences and Humanities. This teaching and training will develop in conjunction with legislative changes currently being proposed for the Malta Cultural Heritage Act 2002 (revised 2005), which, for the first time in Malta, had established a Warrant for Conservator-Restorers as mandatory for the practice of the profession in Malta. All these changes are aimed at producing professionals of international standing, capable of working in any European country, and prepared to deliver excellent service to the world of Cultural Heritage. ; N/A

Higher Education is no longer dominated by monopolistic structures but is becoming increasingly competitive both on the domestic and international platform. This is mirrored in Malta's higher education governing system where public higher education institutions are not anymore the sole players because they are competing with private institutions that are enrolling an increasing number of students and have now become a major player in this sector. This raises the main research question of this paper: How are Malta's educational institutions facing this reality and how are the governing structures being re-engineered in the context of an international competitive scenario? In its attempt to provide an answer, this paper introduces the concept of the 'governing and managerial engine' and presents a preliminary study of the governing and managerial state of higher education in Malta. The shift from a government to a governing perspective in public policy which challenged the idea of having a 'lone co-ordinator' into more 'network steering', 'quasi-markets', 'new public management' and 'interactive governance' has had its influences on higher education. Governance in higher education became not only associated with the idea of networks but also with the introduction of markets and New Public Management concepts which are associated with the business enterprise world. This is a process towards the development of business-like governing structures and a higher education 'governing and managerial engine'. The focus of this paper is to assess structural theories and investigate one of the streams of the governance model proposed by De Boer, Enders and Schimank in 2006, namely the development of effective managerial hierarchies, goal-setting regimes and decision-making powers in Malta's higher education structures. The analysis in governing structures is limited to the three main public institutions offering courses at Higher Education Level: the University of Malta, Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST) and the Institute for Tourism Studies (ITS). The first section provides an introductory analysis of the changing context and how students' population in the private and public institutions has evolved over time. The second section assesses the importance of strengthening managerialism instead of focusing exclusively on academia. The third section examines the governing structures at a national level and compares the structural arrangements at an institutional level. ; peer-reviewed