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Full bibliographic record: Leona M. English and Peter Mayo (2021). Lifelong Learning, Global Social Justice, and Sustainability. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature. ISBN: 978-3-030-65777-2 ; The Shakespearian image of the 'innocent flower' that hides the 'serpent under it', is adopted by English and Mayo to illustrate Machiavellian intentions in the rise of Lifelong Learning (LLL) and decline of Lifelong Education (LLE). The two terms boast different meanings, specifically, LLL promotes a more economically instrumental understanding of learning against the broadly political and educational meanings associated with LLL. The two have been promoted by separate institutions flexing their ideological muscles to impose their goals on the dominant discourse of lifelong learning. In this way, their proponents attempted to affect practices in and budgets dedicated to the field. The earlier version, LLE, was a bandwagon for Third World post-colonial promotion of newly-gained political independence, but also for revolutionary, state-run programmes with social and economic goals. This was Unesco's baby, with LLE comprising a broad educational space inhabited by, amongst others, indigenous, nonformal, continuing, and comparative education. The intellectual support for such an approach was intense, and this is detailed in the book. [excerpt] ; N/A

Gramsci's Philosophy of Praxis was an attempt to present Marxism as a political philosophy promoting the inter-definable relation between theory and practice. No practice without theory; every man was a philosopher. Marx's call to change the world (act) more than interpret it (think) did not repudiate philosophy. It reaffirmed the unity theory-practice contextualising it in history. This characterised the intellectual project of the Prison Notebooks as the way ahead for the political affirmation of the working class. Praxis became a pedagogical, consciousness- raising practice. Enriched by other concepts – structure-superstructure (mode of production), intellectuals-working class (historic bloc) – Gramsci's praxis was also an attempt to prevent Marxism, philosophically presented as historical materialism, from morphing into metaphysics and vulgar materialism. Respecting the strictures of 'translatability', praxis is adopted to discuss the 1970s industrialisation and its aftermath in Malta. ; peer-reviewed

Industrial development in post-colonial Malta required 'workfarist' human resource policies. Trade schools, amongst others, provided productivity-raising training. Projecting a specific class identity, those for girls were socially conservative. Then, socialist policy kick-started 'welfarist' comprehensive schooling. Eventually, government change in 1987 led to human resource jargon change but workfarism continued (and continues) to thrive. ; N/A

Antonio Gramsci adopted concepts from others only to develop them further and not necessarily along the same path as in their original context. 'Passive revolution' assisted Vincenzo Cuoco to explain the short-lived top down democratisation of the Neapolitan State in 1799. Gramsci generalised it to explain the Italian Risorgimento and the bourgeois state it bore. He denoted it as 'revolution without a revolution' in contrast with post-1789 France. Besides state formation, Gramsci enriched passive revolution by associating it with the political subterfuges of 'transformism' and 'technicisation'. He experimented with the term further by expanding its historical limits to embrace the Fascist regime and, economically, Fordist inroads from across the Atlantic. This paper focuses on these (and other) fundamental stages in the narrative of the Italian political state and economic development accompanying it. Therein, the concept of hegemony – arguably Gramsci's most evocative – is added in order to meaningfully contextualise the social formation and social relations within. In this case, a 'negative' reading of passive revolution portrays it as a failure of hegemonic strategy; the people are not successfully educated and absorbed within bourgeois universal values. Consequently, besides broad socio-pedagogic dynamics, the formal education institution and private institutions double their effort to educate hegemonic leadership in political and socio-economic terms. This role as expressed by the main legislative acts created by the Piedmontese, the Fascists, the Christian Democrats and one of Berlusconi's governments is analysed in order to indicate the deliberate links set between formal education and the economy through the identification of specific goals promoted by these institutions, and, throughout, how passive revolution can assist in meaningfully explaining such developments. ; peer-reviewed

This is not the first text dedicated to Freire by members of the Faculty of Education at the University of Malta. Peter Mayo's Liberating Praxis: Freire's Legacy for Radical Education and Politics (2004) was considered by Henry Giroux, "One of the best sources on the life and work of Paulo Freire". Carmel Borg's 2013 edited selection of translations in L-Edukazzjoni hi politika: Ġabra ta' kitbiet ta' Paulo Freire ('Education is politics: A collection of Paulo Freire's writings') adds a text in Maltese amongst the various languages mediating Freire's thoughts. Besides an introduction and detailed biography of the Brazilian educator, the editor selects for translation a number of extracts representing a comprehensive gamut of Freirean themes, of which he also provides a summary. Amongst others, the themes include banking education, ethical formation, dreams and utopia, ideology, anger, the Church, and post-colonial dilemmas and contradictions. In this review essay, the two aspects of Freire's work Carmel Borg chose for a title - education and politics - are contextualised within conceptual frameworks of development and the role of human agency therein. The conceptual frameworks are historically grounded and consequently carry the tension of abstract dualities and dichotomies (centre-periphery; north-south; backward-advanced) in relation with more concrete observations of the complex and changing economic, political and cultural developments. Human agency carries the equally tense relations between observations of protagonists (Freire and the people with whom he shared experiences) and their concrete personal and class experiences. The two - ideal typical development models and human agency - are doubly articulated and enriched by being posited together. This, it is suggested, is one rewarding approach to critically appreciate these readings collected by Carmel Borg. ; peer-reviewed

This paper is a critical reading of Philip Caruana's study of citizenship education and is based on a theoretical analysis of, amongst others, his suggestion to synthesise national identity and shared fate concepts in order to improve the effectiveness of education for citizenship. The promotion of democratic citizenship is considered restrictive both because it is intended to mould as well as because it applies exclusively what it considers 'liberal' ideals. The critical exercise leads to the reworking of a broader programme for which the main areas of knowledge are traced: the state, the economy and culture. This, it is claimed, along with a relevant contribution of studies about the Maltese experience related to the study, also prepares for a return of social and economic interests to citizenship education. At the same time, a wider global view of world events is attempted, away from institutionalised canonical versions. Only in this way, it is claimed, can a political education curriculum be more effective. 'Please sir, I want some more.' When programmes in education for democracy and citizenship do not reach out far enough. 'Please sir, I want some more.' When programmes in education for democracy and citizenship do not reach out far enough. ; peer-reviewed

Chapter 1 : Systems of Knowledge: An Introduction -- Chapter 2 : Man and Culture -- Chapter 3 : Ancient Greek Civilization and Politics -- Chapter 4 : Modern Democracy -- Chapter 5 : The relationship between individuals in a society-Law -- Chapter 6 : Socrates -- Chapter 7 : Ethics -- Chapter 8 : Religion: Christianity -- Chapter 9 : Beauty and art -- Chapter 10 : Art. ; The main intention to write this book was to make available to the student (and others) a certain amount of basic background knowledge and argument that covers the major areas of the first year programme for Systems of Knowledge. Therefore the choice of themes was pre-selected by the syllabus-setters. An immediate reaction when one looks at the themes is the consideration (following a general belief) that they are the intellectual property of certain academic disciplines. The argument developed throughout this book is different. The belief is that although there is a lot to say for specialisation, there is similarly a lot to suggest that an interdisciplinary approach can be the best for the general reader, as well as for the main concern of the subject: the study of values. ; N/A