/library/oar/handle/123456789/36592 2025-12-25T07:56:33Z 2025-12-25T07:56:33Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/113488 2023-10-04T06:11:20Z 1998-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Cyprus-Malta on the threshold of accession to the European Union. Challenges to workers and trade unions [Book review] Abstract: Internationally, trade unions face the complex and multiple challenges posed by rapid globalising tendencies. In the Mediterranean, such tendencies are given an added impulse by the development of the European Union. Whether or not Malta joins Cyprus in the next group of new entrants, all social groups face the consequences of decisions taken by the EU and its institutions; nor can they escape the wider processes of global economic integration in which the EU is both player and victim. This publication, which brings together papers presented at trade union education programmes in Malta and Cyprus, is therefore both timely and relevant.

1998-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/113487 2023-10-04T06:08:58Z 1998-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Education/or the elderly : a right or obligation? [Book review] Abstract: This volume consists of papers read at an international conference organised by the University of the Third Age in Malta. The aim of the conference was to "focus attention on whether the education of the older person was in itself a fundamental right, and consequently to be provided by society, or whether the onus fell more on the older person himself (sic)" (p. vii). Three of the first four papers, the ones by Peter Laslett, Kenneth Wain and Alfred Cuschieri, are of a very high calibre. Every adult educator would acknowledge that they constitute a very positive step in responding to the void which is apparent in the literature on philosophical and pragmatic issues regarding older adult education (Lawson, 1992). I am referring here in particular to literature which focuses on the Universities of the Third Age. Peter Lasslett, Peter Laslett, being the keynote speaker, builds on a previous publication (1996: Chap. 10) to project the U3A movement as an effort to address inequality in educational opportunities and as representing an important contribution to the restructuring of education. Lasslet provides a useful account of the major differences between French and British U3As, assesses the benefit that older persons could get from joining the U3E, and gives an extensive overview of what are the philosophical and pedagogical aims of these universities.

1998-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/113486 2023-10-04T06:02:56Z 1998-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Special kids for special treatment : how special do you have to be to find yourself in a special school? [Book review] Abstract: The literature on pupil behaviour is enormous and stands testimony to the enduring interest in and concern with this issue. It is not uncommon for authors and researchers in this field to base their work upon assumptions about the meaning of such terms as 'emotional and behavioural difficulties', 'maladjustment', 'disturbed behaviour', etc. that are cast about as if their meanings are self-evident and beyond dispute. This lack of critical thinking has produced a 'fix-it' literature which focuses heavily upon supposed child deficits and mechanisms for remediating those deficits. Helen Phtiaka's book comes as a refreshing alternative view to the banality of so much that has been written on the theme of behaviour. The account she has written is based upon her doctoral thesis and captures the depth of engagement with data that is characteristic of good work at this level. The book concentrates on the experiences of pupils in mainstream and special schools and in this respect it is quite remarkable because so rarely do researchers allow these voices ·to be heard in their work.

1998-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/113484 2023-10-04T05:43:59Z 1998-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: The changing curriculum. Studies in social construction [Book review] Abstract: The book comprises ten chapters and a long introduction (30 pages) by Joe L.Kincheloe. All ten chapters are papers authored by Goodson (three in cooperation with others) which appeared in various journals and publications from 1988 to 1997. This is why we find a repetition of ideas, arguments and examples in the book. The first chapter "By way of Introduction" is an interview by Ivor Goodson with Don Santor which sets the leit -motif of the book, that the curriculum is not the product of a detached exercise and "a dispassionate and rational decision" but "an eminently political exercise." In the second chapter, "Investigating Schooling : From the Personal to the Programmatic", the author explains the personal experience which urged him to study the origins of the social construction of curriculum and schooling. In the third chapter, "Chariots of Fire. Etymologies, Epistemologies and the Emergence of Curriculum", he express his disagreement with philosophers (mainly Phenix and Hirst) whose understanding of knowledge as "fait accompli" leads to a prescriptive curriculum. He also stresses the need for the study of the social context in which knowledge is conceived and produced and the manner in which it is translated for use.

1998-01-01T00:00:00Z