This was the very first compendium of Adult Education in Malta that was published. It drew writers not normally associated with the field as well as others who had made a name in this area. Adult Education is a vast and amorphous activity which comprises areas not immediately identified with it but which in effect entail a strong degree of adult learning. As Antonio Gramsci famously said, every relationship of hegemony is an educational relationship. Education is here seen in its wider and not solely its institutional context. This also ties in with his specific view of 'civil society' the term which the late Gramsci scholar, Joseph A. Buttigieg used, in this specific meaning, when reviewing the book for Malta's Sunday Times. This explains the book title, Beyond Schooling. It comprises but extends beyond learning activities within institutions.
It involves institutions such as the Church, Evening Adult Literacy Classes, adult learning and social difference, mass media such as Radio, Television, Women's Romance magazines, Art experiences, Theatre, Workers' Education in different contexts, Environmental Studies, Women' s Studies, Youth Studies, Disability Studies, Maltese Migrant Communities...all are included in this book produced in the 1990's. Of course, certain issues came across more strongly in later years, notably Immigration.
This publication was part of the then pioneering publishing programme in education and other areas engaged in by the recently deceased Evan Cumbo of Mireva Publishers. Dissemination of this out of print volume is partly a testimony to his memory. Also remembered are Ettore Gelpi, who wrote the Foreword and who passed away in 2002, and other UM- based contributors Anthony M. Schembri who was instrumental in setting up Malta's first U3A and lectured in English literature, Charles E. Mizzi, who lectured and wrote on disability and the innovative painter and Art lecturer, Isabelle Borg.
May this latest circulation of the book serve to keep their memories alive. Indeed other contributors are still active in the areas they write about or other related areas, despite the retirement of a few of them from their full time employment duties. In short, it is a book published at a time when adult education was not firmly established as an area of academic and social enquiry. Much water has flowed under the bridge since then. Hope readers will continue to find much relevance in this book. It should prove to be a publication that, as the popular US expression goes, "has legs".
'Beyond Schooling. Education in Malta', edited by Prof. Godfrey Baldacchino and Prof. Peter Mayo.
More information about this Book publication is available .
