The politics of education

Abstract

In this reflective account, I provide an overview of some of the main currents, particularly in sociological research, and specifically sociology of education research, to which I have been exposed as an academic in my thirty or so years tenure at the University of Malta with temporary academic appointments in other foreign universities. I refer to my research in the context of these currents which have contributed to my ongoing formation as an academic, educator and citizen. The overarching rubric for most of my academic oeuvre would be the Politics of Education. I would like to think that my work is that of an engaged sociologist—a value committed one. The major influences in this piece are Antonio Gramsci, Paulo Freire, some classical sociologists, Henry A. Giroux, Antonia Darder and many others within critical social and political thought. I consider historical movements in the education field as having had an influence on my thinking, notably those concerning workers’ education. Lack of space denies me the chance to explore the influence of other currents in political and education thought which made their presence felt in my work but which can easily be tokenized in the restricted space available. I do provide detailed bibliographical references to my several sustained writings, as author and co-author, on some of them, especially those involved in specific forms of difference, race, gender and biodiversity in particular.