/library/oar/handle/123456789/1712 Sat, 08 Nov 2025 09:10:19 GMT 2025-11-08T09:10:19Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/10196 Title: Civic action for sustainable futures : what role for adult environmental education? Abstract: The main aim of the thesis was to identify salient situations that enable participatory action as well as create barriers to the transition towards sustainability and to identify key conditions for Adult Environmental Education that would sensitise and mobilise sustained civic action for sustainable development. The research questions were classified under three major headings: Context as pertaining to an ever changing glocal world, mindsets and paradigms; Participation issues; and Educational processes. The research methodology adopted a case study approach using multiple sources of data gathering as appropriate to the different contexts of the case studies chosen and as permitted by practical considerations. Four case studies were chosen through convenience within the Mediterranean geographic territory: an Intentional Community in Malta; a Fair Trade Network in Egypt; and two Local Agenda 21 processes: one in Modena (Italy) and one in Bethlehem (Palestine). The results were evaluated and analysed against the objectives of this research and narrated in a non-technical language that highlighted the specificity of each case study and identified themes, patterns and commonalities. The study evidences the power of the case studies to reframe and critically challenge the hegemonic core beliefs of how a municipality, a Church organisation and a trade organisation ought to act. The political space for participation is not a constant, but an ever-changing space negotiated through the struggles, doubts and hopes of the relevant stakeholders and conditioned by the socio-political reality of the context in which they operate. With inspiring leadership and a real commitment to a mental mode that embraces citizen mobilisation and new spaces for conversations, both CSOs and local institutions can be a positive force towards sustainable solutions at a local level. Adult Environmental Educators and Education for Sustainable Development practitioners need to re-define their roles - in particular their mentorship role and leadership training in addressing the sustainability transition. In the face of social, environmental, cultural and economic challenges presented by an ever-changing glocal world, investing in leadership, social learning and in the enhancement of the capacity of both institutions and CSOs, to be and become innovative cocreators of a new emerging paradigm, is a challenge for educators to embrace with passion and urgency. Description: PH.D.EDUCATION Wed, 01 Jan 2014 00:00:00 GMT /library/oar/handle/123456789/10196 2014-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/9953 Title: Industrialisation, social reproduction and education : the experience of Italy's northeast and Malta in the second half of the twentieth century Abstract: Writing in 1998, as he referred to post-war industrial development, Michael Porter categorised two sets of chapter headings for his The Competitive Advantage of Nations: on one side, ‘American post-war dominance’, ‘stable Switzerland’, Sweden faced with choices, a need for ‘renewing German dynamism’, and ‘the slide of Britain’; on the other, ‘the rise of Japan’, ‘emerging Korea’ and ‘surging Italy’. The surge in the competitive advantage of the Italian economy that led to rapid growth, according to him, was propped by exports from numerous small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and the most successful amongst them were organised in clusters. Although large Italian firms also exported, these were not operating in sectors where Italy was most successful, such as in textiles and apparel, household appliances, furniture, lighting, and ceramics. The latter sectors were populated by the clusters of SMEs, geographically delimited, and many of them mono-sectoral (Porter, 1998, p. 422). Sabel (2003), who along with Piore, in 1984, had proposed a ‘second industrial divide’, with a craft-based industrial paradigm taking over from the dominant post-war mass production paradigm, described these successful Italian clusters as industrial districts (IDs). With Piore, he identified IDs as representative of the new, craft-based paradigm. Picking up from early writings by Bagnasco, Becattini, Bellandi and Brusco in Italy, Sabel re-iterated how ID firms forming part of regional (as against national) economies, previously surviving on subcontracting deals, had become finished goods producers. They were no longer market shy and subordinate to mass production companies. Description: PH.D.EDUCATION Wed, 01 Jan 2014 00:00:00 GMT /library/oar/handle/123456789/9953 2014-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/2785 Title: Mothers and homework supervision : a comparative study of the impact of educational background Abstract: In the West, the mother is the main parent figure who takes charge of supervising her children’s homework (Clarke, 2012; Grolnick & Slowiaczek, 1994; Hoover-Dempsey, Bassler & Burow, 1995; Lareau, 1989; Reay, 1998; Symeou, 2005). This is true for Maltese mothers as well (Azzopardi, 1995; Buttigieg & Cassar, 2013; Dalli, 2007; Farrugia & Vella, 2002; Mifsud, 1993). In this dissertation I will explore the ways in which a sample of Maltese mothers deploy a number of strategies when supervising their daughters’ homework. I will demonstrate that, irrespective of their level of education, all the mothers in my sample actively participate in their children’s homework, albeit in different ways. The educational background of the mothers—taken as a proxy for socio-economic status— influences the range of strategies that are deployed, and the way these strategies are implemented. Bourdieu’s (2004) notion of cultural capital is adopted throughout in order to make sense of the differences between the mothers involved in this study. Description: M.A. COMP.EURO-MED Wed, 01 Jan 2014 00:00:00 GMT /library/oar/handle/123456789/2785 2014-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/2783 Title: Mothers and homework supervision : a comparative study of the impact of educational background Abstract: In the West, the mother is the main parent figure who takes charge of supervising her children’s homework (Clarke, 2012; Grolnick & Slowiaczek, 1994; Hoover-Dempsey, Bassler & Burow, 1995; Lareau, 1989; Reay, 1998; Symeou, 2005). This is true for Maltese mothers as well (Azzopardi, 1995; Buttigieg & Cassar, 2013; Dalli, 2007; Farrugia & Vella, 2002; Mifsud, 1993). In this dissertation I will explore the ways in which a sample of Maltese mothers deploy a number of strategies when supervising their daughters’ homework. I will demonstrate that, irrespective of their level of education, all the mothers in my sample actively participate in their children’s homework, albeit in different ways. The educational background of the mothers—taken as a proxy for socio-economic status— influences the range of strategies that are deployed, and the way these strategies are implemented. Bourdieu’s (2004) notion of cultural capital is adopted throughout in order to make sense of the differences between the mothers involved in this study. Description: M.A. COMP.EURO-MED Wed, 01 Jan 2014 00:00:00 GMT /library/oar/handle/123456789/2783 2014-01-01T00:00:00Z