While local policy documents have high aspirations for further education, this is in reality ofte... more While local policy documents have high aspirations for further education, this is in reality often embedded in a utilitarian culture of standardization, instruction and coaching for high stake examinations. This is also the case for the teaching and learning of biology at post-secondary level, where the successful student needs to absorb and memorise information at the same pace that it is being dished out. This utilitarian notion of education makes it difficult for many to succeed. This paper seeks to explore a German inspired notion of education, which though alien to many in the Anglo-Saxon world, has a long and influential tradition. Bildung, an educational concept embedded in German philosophical history and culture. This concept is especially relevant for further education, and its intended outcomes are personal and societal transformation rather than simply memorising facts and training for a career. In the current scenario, where the race for grades dominates, the skills for...
I remember I felt like I was going to heaven…going to school for the first time, learning about t... more I remember I felt like I was going to heaven…going to school for the first time, learning about the world and how other people live and what they are doing! Looking beyond the walls of my home! … Learning is just great!" 13-year old girl attending a girlfriendly school in Redwan, Egypt "On 1 January 2006, the world [woke] up to a deadline missed. The Millennium Development Goal-gender parity in primary and secondary education by 2005-[remained] unmet. What is particularly disheartening is that this was a realistic deadline and a reachable goal. The tragedy of this failure is that an unthinkable number of children, the majority of whom are girls, have been abandoned to a bleak future. "
International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance
This paper focuses on commonly used terms in career guidance in order to examine the impact they ... more This paper focuses on commonly used terms in career guidance in order to examine the impact they can have on the way problems are conceptualised and consequently on the solutions that are envisaged. Four such terms are considered, namely 'vulnerability', 'resilience', 'employability', and 'activation'. Drawing on critical social theory, this paper explores the relationship between language, thought, and action. It demonstrates the intimate relationship of the four terms to the neoliberal agenda in general and to responsibilisation in particular. The paper concludes by arguing that the career development field has a role to play in the struggle over the meaning of concepts in the public sphere, as the outcome has a bearing on the opportunities for people to flourish. Keywords Career guidance • Responsibilisation • Social justice Résumé Quatre "gros mots" dans l'orientation professionnelle: du sens commun au bon sens Cet article se concentre sur les termes couramment utilisés dans l'orientation professionnelle afin d'examiner l'impact qu'ils peuvent avoir sur la façon dont les problèmes sont conceptualisés, et par conséquent sur les solutions qui sont envisagées. Quatre de ces termes sont considérés, à savoir 'vulnérabilité', 'résilience', 'employabilité', et 'activation'. S'appuyant sur la théorie sociale critique, cet article explore la relation entre le langage, la pensée et l'action. Il démontre la relation intime de ces quatre termes avec l'agenda néolibéral en général, et avec la responsabilisation en particulier. L'article conclut en affirmant que le domaine de l'évolution de carrière a un rôle à jouer dans la lutte pour la signification des concepts dans la sphère publique, car le résultat a une incidence sur les possibilités d'épanouissement des personnes.
This paper outlines some of the most prominent approaches to Quality Assurance that are used in t... more This paper outlines some of the most prominent approaches to Quality Assurance that are used in the provision of career gUidance services in Europe. Drawing on a range of sources, and particularly on the work that has been done in the context of the international Career Guidance reviews and studies since the year 2000, the paper identifies some of the key trends, as well as the most important challenges that need to be addressed in order to ensure that citizens are well served in what is increasingly seen to be an entitlement, particularly in a historical conjuncture marked by social and economic insecurity.peer-reviewe
To properly assess the quality of education, one needs to first of all define what ‘quality’ in e... more To properly assess the quality of education, one needs to first of all define what ‘quality’ in education actually is, and the extent to which this can be measured, if at all. If by ‘quality’ one refers to student attainment in standardized tests in such subjects as mathematics, science, language competence, and so on, then the news from the Euro-Mediterranean region has been somewhat disheartening. Statistics generated by organizations comparing achievement across a range of ‘core’ curriculum areas and competences have consistently shown that students from the Arab states underperform when compared to other students from countries with a similar GDP. This is true, for instance, for the results obtained in the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA – a triennial international survey of reading, maths and science skills and knowledge involving more than half a million students from 65 economies), and in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (T...
Dieses Papier befasst sich mit der schulischen Berufsvorbereitung und untersucht, wie diese so ko... more Dieses Papier befasst sich mit der schulischen Berufsvorbereitung und untersucht, wie diese so konzipiert werden kann, dass sie zum Gedei- hen und Wohlbefinden der SchülerInnen in einer Demokratie beiträgt. Zunächst bietet es einen Überblick über die jüngsten Entwick- lungen im Bereich „Career Learning“ weltweit und weist auf die zunehmende Bedeutung hin, die diesen als Beitrag zur Verbesserung der Wettbewerbsfähigkeit in wissensbasierten Volkswirtschaften beigemessen wird. Der Beitrag verdeutlicht, warum eine zentrale Rolle der Arbeit im Lehrplan gerechtfertigt ist: Trotz bedeutender gesellschaftlicher und techno- logischer Veränderungen, die eine „Post- Arbeitsgesellschaft“ vorhersagen, behält „sinn- volle Arbeit" ihre Bedeutung als Quelle der Erfüllung und des Wohlbefindens sowie als Kennzeichen für ein gelingendes Leben. Ein Großteil der in neoliberalen Volkswirt- schaften verfügbaren Arbeit ist jedoch zuneh- mend die Ursache von Leiden, Not, Ausbeutung und Missbrauch. Es w...
The provision of career information and guidance throughout an individual’s life has become an is... more The provision of career information and guidance throughout an individual’s life has become an issue of considerable importance worldwide, as societies prepare themselves to meet the challenges of the transition to knowledge-based economies. The OECD conducted a review of career guidance policies in 2002 and the OECD survey instrument has been used by the European Training Foundation (ETF) to collect information on guidance and counselling policies in 11 acceding and candidate countries (ACCs), focusing on the following key issues: key goals and policy instruments, roles of stakeholders, targeting and access, staffing and financing, quality assurance, delivery settings and methods, and evidence base. This synthesis report summarises the current situation in terms of the development of career information and guidance in both the education and labour market sectors in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. The synthesis re...
Employment Training Corporation, or the Education Division. Opinions expressed are those of the a... more Employment Training Corporation, or the Education Division. Opinions expressed are those of the author who also bears responsibility for any errors.
… : Office for Official Publications of the …, 2005
Software developers are discovering that practices which have successfully served single-core pla... more Software developers are discovering that practices which have successfully served single-core platforms for decades do no longer work for multi-cores. Stream processing is a parallel execution model that is well-suited for architectures with multiple computational elements that are connected by a network. We propose a power-aware streaming execution layer for network-on-chip architectures that addresses the energy constraints of embedded devices. Our proof-of-concept implementation targets the Intel SCC processor, which connects 48 cores via a network-onchip. We motivate our design decisions and describe the status of our implementation. * The research leading to these results has received funding from the FP7 ARTEMIS-JU research project "ConstRaint and Application driven Framework for Tailoring Embedded Real-time Systems" (CRAFTERS).
O ver the past forty years, the Faculty of Education, University of Malta, has established itself... more O ver the past forty years, the Faculty of Education, University of Malta, has established itself strongly both locally and internationally. Several members of staff have achieved recognition both through publications in their respective fields and by means of their outreach initiatives. Contributions have been made in various fields, from the Sciences to the Arts, and also through textbooks for schools, engagement in the community and collaboration with stakeholders. Over the years the Faculty has invested heavily in its initial teacher education programmes, to the extent that today practically all fully-qualified teachers in Maltese schools, including the State and non-State sectors, are alumni of the Faculty. It has also branched out into various sectors of education, offering courses in different areas of specialization, at all levels of tertiary education. This volume, "Teacher Education Matters. Transforming lives … transforming schools", is a collection of papers written by academics from the Faculty of Education. It celebrates the Faculty's 40th anniversary while providing a comprehensive view of research carried out by the authors and their engagement in their respective educational fields. The common thread is represented by the Faculty's involvement in society and by the contribution that academics make to educational developments, in line with the principle that education is a lifelong and lifewide journey.
This paper presents the plight of Palestinian primary school children in the city of Hebron in th... more This paper presents the plight of Palestinian primary school children in the city of Hebron in the West Bank, and documents the attempts of the Palestinian community to provide an education against all odds. Drawing on fieldwork, observations and interviews carried out by the author in November 2001, the case study provides a background and context, highlighting the difficult situation that Palestinian families find themselves in due to the curfew restrictions imposed by the Israeli Military during the second Intifada. The paper then goes on to describe the way the Palestinian community mobilised itself, with UNICEF support, in order to ensure that children do get the basic education they are entitled to, largely through the development of the Distance Remedial Education Project (DREP). Details of the DREP are given, particularly in relation to the development of self-learning education worksheets, extension remedial programmes, and the use of local TV stations to broadcast lessons....
West, West-East relations in education; and education for sustainability in the Mediterranean and... more West, West-East relations in education; and education for sustainability in the Mediterranean and beyond. Some of these broad themes are reflected in the chapters included in this volume. Ronald Sultana's chapter testifies to his standing and wide experiences in the field. It takes us through a 15-year, autobiographical journey in the areas of research and coordination of comparative education projects. Sultana's personal account identifies the limits and explores the possibilities of doing comparative research in the region. It also provides signposts for future research. JosAnn Cutajar focuses on one of Sultana's major concerns, namely the dependence of academics and academic institutions, found in small or intermediately developed countries, such as Malta, on Western-derived epistemologies and research. Cutajar argues that such dependence perpetuates subalternity. She proposes a post-colonial pedagogical strategy as a potential antidote to neo-colonial discourses. One other chapter by a Maltese scholar is that offered by Isabelle Calleja from the University of Malta's Department of International Relations. Her chapter however focuses not on her home country but on the Cypriot conflict, which she has been researching on site for years. It is common knowledge that this conflict has physically divided the Turkish-Greek communities for more than thirty years. Calleja provides us with a study of the transformation experienced in the teaching of the History of Cyprus, as the country evolved from a long period of geopolitical transformation, characterised by national, political and ideological division of the island, to a period marked by genuine attempts at border crossing and at a permanent solution to the crisis. The Palestinian and Sudanese conflicts provide the backdrop for Mazawi's analysis of some of the context-dependent dynamics that affect teachers' lives and work. His cursory review unearths two disturbing truths: the absence of studies of educators' lives and work in the Arab region, exacerbated by the uncritical importation of models of 'educational leadership'; and the tourist-gaze approach to the construction of educators' work in the region. Mazawi, like Sultana and Cutajar, calls for a new research agenda that is critically engaged and contextually grounded; research projects that foreground educators' lives and work in the Arab region. The work by CER Editor, Mark Ginsburg, from the USA, and Nagwa Megahed, from Egypt, examines the intersection of global discourses regarding student-centred and active-learning pedagogies with educational reform initiatives in Egypt. Ginsburg and Megahed's chapter invites comparative and international educators to problematise how local, national and global discourses are constrained or empowered by global and economic developments, including initiatives disguised as 'democratisation' and economic liberalisation. I RONALD G. SULTANA This chapter considers some of the promises and challenges in doing comparative education in the Mediterranean region. The focus on the Mediterranean is, in many ways, a wager, in that the region is rather more notable for its diversity than for its commonalities. Nevertheless, it is argued that comparative education goes-or should go-beyond the positivist concern with comparing 'like with like'. Rather, it is more about finding a standpoint from where educational and related social phenomena can be seen from a different perspective, generating a deeper understanding of dynamics, as well as fresh insights. It is argued that the adoption of a Mediterranean lens facilitates this process, though there are distinctive challenges that arise. Building on 15 years experience in carrying out and coordinating comparative education projects in the region, the chapter outlines both the promise and pitfalls of the endeavour, and traces an agenda for future research. groups within academia and the public sphere both within and without particular nation states. Such a dialogue would be facilitated if a post-colonial pedagogy is adopted. This pedagogy would help challenge neo-colonial discourses and practices which have infiltrated academia with the hope that these exercises are adopted in other spheres of life, and hence more egalitarian societies created.
Looking back before moving forward: building on 15 years of comparative educational research in t... more Looking back before moving forward: building on 15 years of comparative educational research in the Mediterranean / Ronald G. Sultana 9-25 Knowledge and post-colonial pedagogy / JosAnn Cutajar 27-47 Education and the teaching of history in the light of encouraging conflict resolution in Cyprus / Isabelle Calleja 49-67 Dis/integrated orders and the politics of recognition: civil upheavals, militarism, and educators' lives and work / André Elias Mazawi 69-89 Global discourses and educational reform in Egypt: the case of activelearning pedagogies / Mark B. Ginsburg & Nagwa M. Megahed 91-115 The permanence of distinctiveness: performances and changing schooling governance in the Southern European welfare states / Paolo Landri 117-135
This article provides an account of the introduction of an Education Management and Information S... more 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.
While local policy documents have high aspirations for further education, this is in reality ofte... more While local policy documents have high aspirations for further education, this is in reality often embedded in a utilitarian culture of standardization, instruction and coaching for high stake examinations. This is also the case for the teaching and learning of biology at post-secondary level, where the successful student needs to absorb and memorise information at the same pace that it is being dished out. This utilitarian notion of education makes it difficult for many to succeed. This paper seeks to explore a German inspired notion of education, which though alien to many in the Anglo-Saxon world, has a long and influential tradition. Bildung, an educational concept embedded in German philosophical history and culture. This concept is especially relevant for further education, and its intended outcomes are personal and societal transformation rather than simply memorising facts and training for a career. In the current scenario, where the race for grades dominates, the skills for...
I remember I felt like I was going to heaven…going to school for the first time, learning about t... more I remember I felt like I was going to heaven…going to school for the first time, learning about the world and how other people live and what they are doing! Looking beyond the walls of my home! … Learning is just great!" 13-year old girl attending a girlfriendly school in Redwan, Egypt "On 1 January 2006, the world [woke] up to a deadline missed. The Millennium Development Goal-gender parity in primary and secondary education by 2005-[remained] unmet. What is particularly disheartening is that this was a realistic deadline and a reachable goal. The tragedy of this failure is that an unthinkable number of children, the majority of whom are girls, have been abandoned to a bleak future. "
International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance
This paper focuses on commonly used terms in career guidance in order to examine the impact they ... more This paper focuses on commonly used terms in career guidance in order to examine the impact they can have on the way problems are conceptualised and consequently on the solutions that are envisaged. Four such terms are considered, namely 'vulnerability', 'resilience', 'employability', and 'activation'. Drawing on critical social theory, this paper explores the relationship between language, thought, and action. It demonstrates the intimate relationship of the four terms to the neoliberal agenda in general and to responsibilisation in particular. The paper concludes by arguing that the career development field has a role to play in the struggle over the meaning of concepts in the public sphere, as the outcome has a bearing on the opportunities for people to flourish. Keywords Career guidance • Responsibilisation • Social justice Résumé Quatre "gros mots" dans l'orientation professionnelle: du sens commun au bon sens Cet article se concentre sur les termes couramment utilisés dans l'orientation professionnelle afin d'examiner l'impact qu'ils peuvent avoir sur la façon dont les problèmes sont conceptualisés, et par conséquent sur les solutions qui sont envisagées. Quatre de ces termes sont considérés, à savoir 'vulnérabilité', 'résilience', 'employabilité', et 'activation'. S'appuyant sur la théorie sociale critique, cet article explore la relation entre le langage, la pensée et l'action. Il démontre la relation intime de ces quatre termes avec l'agenda néolibéral en général, et avec la responsabilisation en particulier. L'article conclut en affirmant que le domaine de l'évolution de carrière a un rôle à jouer dans la lutte pour la signification des concepts dans la sphère publique, car le résultat a une incidence sur les possibilités d'épanouissement des personnes.
This paper outlines some of the most prominent approaches to Quality Assurance that are used in t... more This paper outlines some of the most prominent approaches to Quality Assurance that are used in the provision of career gUidance services in Europe. Drawing on a range of sources, and particularly on the work that has been done in the context of the international Career Guidance reviews and studies since the year 2000, the paper identifies some of the key trends, as well as the most important challenges that need to be addressed in order to ensure that citizens are well served in what is increasingly seen to be an entitlement, particularly in a historical conjuncture marked by social and economic insecurity.peer-reviewe
To properly assess the quality of education, one needs to first of all define what ‘quality’ in e... more To properly assess the quality of education, one needs to first of all define what ‘quality’ in education actually is, and the extent to which this can be measured, if at all. If by ‘quality’ one refers to student attainment in standardized tests in such subjects as mathematics, science, language competence, and so on, then the news from the Euro-Mediterranean region has been somewhat disheartening. Statistics generated by organizations comparing achievement across a range of ‘core’ curriculum areas and competences have consistently shown that students from the Arab states underperform when compared to other students from countries with a similar GDP. This is true, for instance, for the results obtained in the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA – a triennial international survey of reading, maths and science skills and knowledge involving more than half a million students from 65 economies), and in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (T...
Dieses Papier befasst sich mit der schulischen Berufsvorbereitung und untersucht, wie diese so ko... more Dieses Papier befasst sich mit der schulischen Berufsvorbereitung und untersucht, wie diese so konzipiert werden kann, dass sie zum Gedei- hen und Wohlbefinden der SchülerInnen in einer Demokratie beiträgt. Zunächst bietet es einen Überblick über die jüngsten Entwick- lungen im Bereich „Career Learning“ weltweit und weist auf die zunehmende Bedeutung hin, die diesen als Beitrag zur Verbesserung der Wettbewerbsfähigkeit in wissensbasierten Volkswirtschaften beigemessen wird. Der Beitrag verdeutlicht, warum eine zentrale Rolle der Arbeit im Lehrplan gerechtfertigt ist: Trotz bedeutender gesellschaftlicher und techno- logischer Veränderungen, die eine „Post- Arbeitsgesellschaft“ vorhersagen, behält „sinn- volle Arbeit" ihre Bedeutung als Quelle der Erfüllung und des Wohlbefindens sowie als Kennzeichen für ein gelingendes Leben. Ein Großteil der in neoliberalen Volkswirt- schaften verfügbaren Arbeit ist jedoch zuneh- mend die Ursache von Leiden, Not, Ausbeutung und Missbrauch. Es w...
The provision of career information and guidance throughout an individual’s life has become an is... more The provision of career information and guidance throughout an individual’s life has become an issue of considerable importance worldwide, as societies prepare themselves to meet the challenges of the transition to knowledge-based economies. The OECD conducted a review of career guidance policies in 2002 and the OECD survey instrument has been used by the European Training Foundation (ETF) to collect information on guidance and counselling policies in 11 acceding and candidate countries (ACCs), focusing on the following key issues: key goals and policy instruments, roles of stakeholders, targeting and access, staffing and financing, quality assurance, delivery settings and methods, and evidence base. This synthesis report summarises the current situation in terms of the development of career information and guidance in both the education and labour market sectors in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. The synthesis re...
Employment Training Corporation, or the Education Division. Opinions expressed are those of the a... more Employment Training Corporation, or the Education Division. Opinions expressed are those of the author who also bears responsibility for any errors.
… : Office for Official Publications of the …, 2005
Software developers are discovering that practices which have successfully served single-core pla... more Software developers are discovering that practices which have successfully served single-core platforms for decades do no longer work for multi-cores. Stream processing is a parallel execution model that is well-suited for architectures with multiple computational elements that are connected by a network. We propose a power-aware streaming execution layer for network-on-chip architectures that addresses the energy constraints of embedded devices. Our proof-of-concept implementation targets the Intel SCC processor, which connects 48 cores via a network-onchip. We motivate our design decisions and describe the status of our implementation. * The research leading to these results has received funding from the FP7 ARTEMIS-JU research project "ConstRaint and Application driven Framework for Tailoring Embedded Real-time Systems" (CRAFTERS).
O ver the past forty years, the Faculty of Education, University of Malta, has established itself... more O ver the past forty years, the Faculty of Education, University of Malta, has established itself strongly both locally and internationally. Several members of staff have achieved recognition both through publications in their respective fields and by means of their outreach initiatives. Contributions have been made in various fields, from the Sciences to the Arts, and also through textbooks for schools, engagement in the community and collaboration with stakeholders. Over the years the Faculty has invested heavily in its initial teacher education programmes, to the extent that today practically all fully-qualified teachers in Maltese schools, including the State and non-State sectors, are alumni of the Faculty. It has also branched out into various sectors of education, offering courses in different areas of specialization, at all levels of tertiary education. This volume, "Teacher Education Matters. Transforming lives … transforming schools", is a collection of papers written by academics from the Faculty of Education. It celebrates the Faculty's 40th anniversary while providing a comprehensive view of research carried out by the authors and their engagement in their respective educational fields. The common thread is represented by the Faculty's involvement in society and by the contribution that academics make to educational developments, in line with the principle that education is a lifelong and lifewide journey.
This paper presents the plight of Palestinian primary school children in the city of Hebron in th... more This paper presents the plight of Palestinian primary school children in the city of Hebron in the West Bank, and documents the attempts of the Palestinian community to provide an education against all odds. Drawing on fieldwork, observations and interviews carried out by the author in November 2001, the case study provides a background and context, highlighting the difficult situation that Palestinian families find themselves in due to the curfew restrictions imposed by the Israeli Military during the second Intifada. The paper then goes on to describe the way the Palestinian community mobilised itself, with UNICEF support, in order to ensure that children do get the basic education they are entitled to, largely through the development of the Distance Remedial Education Project (DREP). Details of the DREP are given, particularly in relation to the development of self-learning education worksheets, extension remedial programmes, and the use of local TV stations to broadcast lessons....
West, West-East relations in education; and education for sustainability in the Mediterranean and... more West, West-East relations in education; and education for sustainability in the Mediterranean and beyond. Some of these broad themes are reflected in the chapters included in this volume. Ronald Sultana's chapter testifies to his standing and wide experiences in the field. It takes us through a 15-year, autobiographical journey in the areas of research and coordination of comparative education projects. Sultana's personal account identifies the limits and explores the possibilities of doing comparative research in the region. It also provides signposts for future research. JosAnn Cutajar focuses on one of Sultana's major concerns, namely the dependence of academics and academic institutions, found in small or intermediately developed countries, such as Malta, on Western-derived epistemologies and research. Cutajar argues that such dependence perpetuates subalternity. She proposes a post-colonial pedagogical strategy as a potential antidote to neo-colonial discourses. One other chapter by a Maltese scholar is that offered by Isabelle Calleja from the University of Malta's Department of International Relations. Her chapter however focuses not on her home country but on the Cypriot conflict, which she has been researching on site for years. It is common knowledge that this conflict has physically divided the Turkish-Greek communities for more than thirty years. Calleja provides us with a study of the transformation experienced in the teaching of the History of Cyprus, as the country evolved from a long period of geopolitical transformation, characterised by national, political and ideological division of the island, to a period marked by genuine attempts at border crossing and at a permanent solution to the crisis. The Palestinian and Sudanese conflicts provide the backdrop for Mazawi's analysis of some of the context-dependent dynamics that affect teachers' lives and work. His cursory review unearths two disturbing truths: the absence of studies of educators' lives and work in the Arab region, exacerbated by the uncritical importation of models of 'educational leadership'; and the tourist-gaze approach to the construction of educators' work in the region. Mazawi, like Sultana and Cutajar, calls for a new research agenda that is critically engaged and contextually grounded; research projects that foreground educators' lives and work in the Arab region. The work by CER Editor, Mark Ginsburg, from the USA, and Nagwa Megahed, from Egypt, examines the intersection of global discourses regarding student-centred and active-learning pedagogies with educational reform initiatives in Egypt. Ginsburg and Megahed's chapter invites comparative and international educators to problematise how local, national and global discourses are constrained or empowered by global and economic developments, including initiatives disguised as 'democratisation' and economic liberalisation. I RONALD G. SULTANA This chapter considers some of the promises and challenges in doing comparative education in the Mediterranean region. The focus on the Mediterranean is, in many ways, a wager, in that the region is rather more notable for its diversity than for its commonalities. Nevertheless, it is argued that comparative education goes-or should go-beyond the positivist concern with comparing 'like with like'. Rather, it is more about finding a standpoint from where educational and related social phenomena can be seen from a different perspective, generating a deeper understanding of dynamics, as well as fresh insights. It is argued that the adoption of a Mediterranean lens facilitates this process, though there are distinctive challenges that arise. Building on 15 years experience in carrying out and coordinating comparative education projects in the region, the chapter outlines both the promise and pitfalls of the endeavour, and traces an agenda for future research. groups within academia and the public sphere both within and without particular nation states. Such a dialogue would be facilitated if a post-colonial pedagogy is adopted. This pedagogy would help challenge neo-colonial discourses and practices which have infiltrated academia with the hope that these exercises are adopted in other spheres of life, and hence more egalitarian societies created.
Looking back before moving forward: building on 15 years of comparative educational research in t... more Looking back before moving forward: building on 15 years of comparative educational research in the Mediterranean / Ronald G. Sultana 9-25 Knowledge and post-colonial pedagogy / JosAnn Cutajar 27-47 Education and the teaching of history in the light of encouraging conflict resolution in Cyprus / Isabelle Calleja 49-67 Dis/integrated orders and the politics of recognition: civil upheavals, militarism, and educators' lives and work / André Elias Mazawi 69-89 Global discourses and educational reform in Egypt: the case of activelearning pedagogies / Mark B. Ginsburg & Nagwa M. Megahed 91-115 The permanence of distinctiveness: performances and changing schooling governance in the Southern European welfare states / Paolo Landri 117-135
This article provides an account of the introduction of an Education Management and Information S... more 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.
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Papers by Ronald Sultana